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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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57 records · Page 4

Sea Surface Temperature Gradients Estimation Using Top-of-Atmosphere Observations from the ESA Earth Explorer 10 Harmony Mission: Preliminary Studies

The Harmony satellite mission was recently approved as the next European Space Agency (ESA) Earth Explorer 10. The mission science objectives cover several applications related to solid earth, the cryosphere, upper-ocean dynamics and air–sea interactions. The mission consists of a constellation of two satellites, flying with the Copernicus Sentinel 1 (C or D) spacecraft, each hosting a C-band receive-only radar and a thermal infrared (TIR) payload. From an ocean dynamics/air–sea interaction perspective, the mission will provide the unique opportunity to observe simultaneously the signature of submesoscale upper-ocean processes via synthetic aperture radar and TIR imagery. The TIR imager is based on microbolometer technology and its acquisitions will rely on four channels: three narrow-band channels yielding observations at a ≃1 km spatial sampling distance (SSD) and a panchromatic (PAN, 8–12 μm) channel characterized by a ≃300 m SSD. Our study investigates the potential of Harmony in retrieving spatial features related to sea surface temperature (SST) gradients from the high-resolution PAN channel, relying on top-of-atmosphere (TOA) observations. Compared to a standard SST gradient retrieval, our approach does not require atmospheric correction, thus avoiding uncertainties due to inter-channel co-registration and radiometric consistency, with the possibility of exploiting the higher resolution of the PAN channel. The investigations were carried out simulating the future Harmony TOA radiances (TARs), as well as relying on existing state-of-the-art level 1 satellite products. Our approach enables the correct description of SST features at the sea surface avoiding the generation of spurious features due to atmospheric correction and/or instrumental issues. In addition, analyses based on existing satellite products suggest that the clear-sky TOA observations, in a typical mid-latitude scene, allow the reconstruction of up to 85% of the gradient magnitudes found at the sea-surface level. The methodology is less efficient in tropical areas, suffering from smoothing effects due to the high concentrations of water vapor.

sea surface temperature (SST)↗

Calibration and Localization of Optically Pumped Magnetometers Using Electromagnetic Coils

In this paper, we propose a method to estimate the position, orientation, and gain of a magnetic field sensor using a set of (large) electromagnetic coils. We apply the method for calibrating an array of optically pumped magnetometers (OPMs) for magnetoencephalography (MEG). We first measure the magnetic fields of the coils at multiple known positions using a well-calibrated triaxial magnetometer, and model these discreetly sampled fields using vector spherical harmonics (VSH) functions. We then localize and calibrate an OPM by minimizing the sum of squared errors between the model signals and the OPM responses to the coil fields. We show that by using homogeneous and first-order gradient fields, the OPM sensor parameters (gain, position, and orientation) can be obtained from a set of linear equations with pseudo-inverses of two matrices. The currents that should be applied to the coils for approximating these low-order field components can be determined based on the VSH models. Computationally simple initial estimates of the OPM sensor parameters follow. As a first test of the method, we placed a fluxgate magnetometer at multiple positions and estimated the RMS position, orientation, and gain errors of the method to be 1.0 mm, 0.2°, and 0.8%, respectively. Lastly, we calibrated a 48-channel OPM array. The accuracy of the OPM calibration was tested by using the OPM array to localize magnetic dipoles in a phantom, which resulted in an average dipole position error of 3.3 mm. The results demonstrate the feasibility of using electromagnetic coils to calibrate and localize OPMs for MEG.

47 OTHER INSTRUMENTATION↗

Improving AIRS Radiance Spectra in High Contrast Scenes Using MODIS

The Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) on the EOS Aqua Spacecraft was launched on May 4, 2002. AIRS acquires hyperspectral infrared radiances in 2378 channels ranging in wavelength from 3.7-15.4 microns with spectral resolution of better than 1200, and spatial resolution of 13.5 km with global daily coverage. The AIRS is designed to measure temperature and water vapor profiles for improvement in weather forecast accuracy and improved understanding of climate processes. As with most instruments, the AIRS Point Spread Functions (PSFs) are not the same for all detectors. When viewing a non-uniform scene, this causes a significant radiometric error in some channels that is scene dependent and cannot be removed without knowledge of the underlying scene. The magnitude of the error depends on the combination of non-uniformity of the AIRS spatial response for a given channel and the non-uniformity of the scene, but is typically only noticeable in about 1% of the scenes and about 10% of the channels. The current solution is to avoid those channels when performing geophysical retrievals. In this effort we use data from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) instrument to provide information on the scene uniformity that is used to correct the AIRS data. For the vast majority of channels and footprints the technique works extremely well when compared to a Principal Component (PC) reconstruction of the AIRS channels. In some cases where the scene has high inhomogeneity in an irregular pattern, and in some channels, the method can actually degrade the spectrum. Most of the degraded channels appear to be slightly affected by random noise introduced in the process, but those with larger degradation may be affected by alignment errors in the AIRS relative to MODIS or uncertainties in the PSF. Despite these errors, the methodology shows the ability to correct AIRS radiances in non-uniform scenes under some of the worst case conditions and improves the ability to match AIRS and MODIS radiances in non-uniform scenes.

spatial↗