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The atmospheric effects of stratospheric aircraft: A third program report

A third report from the Atmospheric Effects of Stratospheric Aircraft (AESA) component of NASA's High-Speed Research Program (HSRP) is presented. Market and technology considerations continue to provide an impetus for high-speed civil transport research. A recent United Nations Environment Program scientific assessment showed that considerable uncertainty still exists about the possible impact of aircraft on the atmosphere. The AESA was designed to develop the body of scientific knowledge necessary for the evaluation of the impact of stratospheric aircraft on the atmosphere. The first Program report presented the basic objectives and plans for AESA. This third report marks the midpoint of the program and presents the status of the ongoing research on the impact of stratospheric aircraft on the atmosphere as reported at the third annual AESA Program meeting in June 1993. The focus of the program is on predicted atmospheric changes resulting from projected HSCT emissions. Topics reported on cover how high-speed civil transports (HSCT) might affect stratospheric ozone, emissions scenarios and databases to assess potential atmospheric effects from HSCT's, calculated results from 2-D zonal mean models using emissions data, engine trace constituent measurements, and exhaust plume/aircraft wake vortex interactions.

Stolarski, Richard S.

The WFIRST Interim Design Reference Mission: Capabilities, Constraints, and Open Questions

The Project Office and Science Definition Team for the Wide-Field Infrared Survey Telescope (WFIRST) are in the midst of a pre-Phase A study to establish a Design Reference Mission (DRM). An Interim report was released in June 2011, with a final report due later in 2012. The predicted performance of the Interim DRM Observatory will be described, including optical quality, observing efficiency, and sensitivity for representative observing scenarios. Observing constraints and other limitations on performance will also be presented, with an emphasis on potential Guest Observer programs. Finally, a brief status update will be provided on open trade studies of interest to the scientific community. The final DRM may differ from the Interim DRM presented here. However, the underlying requirements of the scientific programs are not expected to change, hence the capabilities of the IDRM are likely to be maintained even if the implementation changes in significant ways.

Kruk, Jeffrey W.

Background of the workshop

The long-term effects of the Challenger accident on solar-terrestrial science resulted in the need to examine the near-term missions under development for the next five years. The workshop was organized to seek ideas and opinions about the future of solar-terrestrial flight programs. Included are considerations of all types of space platforms, i.e., balloons, rockets, free flying satellites, and the variety of platforms supported by NASA astronauts. Specific issues include: the establishment of the level of understanding to be accomplished with the completion of the current worldwide program of research in solar-terrestrial sciences; the identification of major questions to be answered by the future solar-terrestrial sciences research program as it might be if initiated within the next ten years; the identification of space capabilities to be available to the future program and provision of input about the Space Physics Division's priorities for using these to accomplish its future scientific program; and mapping a program strategy to accomplish a future program of research in the solar-terrestrial sciences within the research community's perception of capabilities and constraints.

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Compendium of meteorology scientific issues of 1950 still outstanding

The Compendium of Meteorology was published in 1951 by the American Meteorological Society. A review was made of the Compendium of Meteorology to identify the studies and future needs which the authors expressed in their papers. The needs as seen by the authors are organized into sections and papers following the format of the Compendium of Meteorology. In some cases the needs they identified are as valid today as they were in 1951. In other cases one will easily be able to identify examples where significant progress has been made. It is left to the individual scientists and scientific program managers to assess whether significant progress has been made over the past thirty-five years on these outstanding scientific issues.

Vaughan, W. W.

Social Network and Content Analysis of the North American Carbon Program as a Scientific Community of Practice

The North American Carbon Program (NACP) was formed to further the scientific understanding of sources, sinks, and stocks of carbon in Earth's environment. Carbon cycle science integrates multidisciplinary research, providing decision-support information for managing climate and carbon-related change across multiple sectors of society. This investigation uses the conceptual framework of com-munities of practice (CoP) to explore the role that the NACP has played in connecting researchers into a carbon cycle knowledge network, and in enabling them to conduct physical science that includes ideas from social science. A CoP describes the communities formed when people consistently engage in shared communication and activities toward a common passion or learning goal. We apply the CoP model by using keyword analysis of abstracts from scientific publications to analyze the research outputs of the NACP in terms of its knowledge domain. We also construct a co-authorship network from the publications of core NACP members, describe the structure and social pathways within the community. Results of the content analysis indicate that the NACP community of practice has substantially expanded its research on human and social impacts on the carbon cycle, contributing to a better understanding of how human and physical processes interact with one another. Results of the co-authorship social network analysis demonstrate that the NACP has formed a tightly connected community with many social pathways through which knowledge may flow, and that it has also expanded its network of institutions involved in carbon cycle research over the past seven years.

Knowledge domain

Very-wide-field camera. Proposal of Space Astronomy Laboratory for second Spacelab mission

A proposal is made for inclusion of a very wide field camera onboard Spacelab. Its scientific program is outlined: detection and photometry, spectrography, and star and starlike object photography. The optics, receptor, and mechanical structure are described. Scientific and technical constraints are discussed, and a development plan is detailed. The dust contamination of Spacelab using the camera was also studied.

Courtes, G.

Management experience of an international venture in space The Ulysses mission

The management of the Ulysses project, a probe which will fly a solar polar orbit, is described. The 5-yr mission will feature a flyby of Jupiter to deflect the spacecraft into a high-inclination orbit. Data on the solar corona, solar wind, the sun-wind interface, the heliospheric magnetic field, solar and nonsolar cosmic rays, etc., will be gathered as a function of the solar latitude. NASA will track and control the probe with the Deep Space Network. JPL provides project management for NASA while the Directorate of Scientific Programs performs ESA management functions. The DOE will provide a radioisotope thermoelectric generator while NASA and ESA each supply half the scientific payload. A NASA-ESA Joint Working Group meets about twice per year to monitor the project and discuss the technical and scientific requirements. Safety issues and measures which are being addressed due to the presence of the Pu-238 heat source for the RTG are discussed.

Yoshida, Ronald Y.

Application of Modern Fortran to Spacecraft Trajectory Design and Optimization

In this paper, applications of the modern Fortran programming language to the field of spacecraft trajectory optimization and design are examined. Modern object-oriented Fortran has many advantages for scientific programming, although many legacy Fortran aerospace codes have not been upgraded to use the newer standards (or have been rewritten in other languages perceived to be more modern). NASA's Copernicus spacecraft trajectory optimization program, originally a combination of Fortran 77 and Fortran 95, has attempted to keep up with modern standards and makes significant use of the new language features. Various algorithms and methods are presented from trajectory tools such as Copernicus, as well as modern Fortran open source libraries and other projects.

Trajectory Optimizatio

Government Information Quarterly. Volume 7, no. 2: National Aeronautics and Space Administration Scientific and Technical Information Programs. Special issue

NASA scientific and technical information (STI) programs are discussed. Topics include management of information in a research and development agency, the new space and Earth science information systems at NASA's archive, scientific and technical information management, and technology transfer of NASA aerospace technology to other industries.

Hernon, Peter

Unique Education and Workforce Development for NASA Engineers

NASA engineers are some of the world's best-educated graduates, responsible for technically complex, highly significant scientific programs. Even though these professionals are highly proficient in traditional analytical competencies, there is a unique opportunity to offer continuing education that further enhances their overall scientific minds. With a goal of maintaining the Agency's passionate, "best in class" engineering workforce, the NASA Academy of Program/Project & Engineering Leadership (APPEL) provides educational resources encouraging foundational learning, professional development, and knowledge sharing. NASA APPEL is currently partnering with the scientific community's most respected subject matter experts to expand its engineering curriculum beyond the analytics and specialized subsystems in the areas of: understanding NASA's overall vision and its fundamental basis, and the Agency initiatives supporting them; sharing NASA's vast reservoir of engineering experience, wisdom, and lessons learned; and innovatively designing hardware for manufacturability, assembly, and servicing. It takes collaboration and innovation to educate an organization that possesses such a rich and important history~and a future that is of great global interest. NASA APPEL strives to intellectually nurture the Agency's technical professionals, build its capacity for future performance, and exemplify its core values~alJ to better enable NASA to meet its strategic vision~and beyond.

Forsgren, Roger C.

NASA's Heliophysics Theory Program - Accomplishments in Life Cycle Ending 2011

NASA's Heliophysics Theory Program (HTP) is now into a new triennial cycle of funded research, with new research awards beginning in 2011. The theory program was established by the (former) Solar Terrestrial Division in 1980 to redress a weakness of support in the theory area. It has been a successful, evolving scientific program with long-term funding of relatively large "critical mass groups" pursuing theory and modeling on a scale larger than that available within the limits of traditional NASA Supporting Research and Technology (SR&T) awards. The results of the last 3 year funding cycle, just ended, contributed to ever more cutting edge theoretical understanding of all parts of the Sun-Earth Connection chain. Advances ranged from the core of the Sun out into the corona, through the solar wind into the Earth's magnetosphere and down to the ionosphere and lower atmosphere, also contributing to understanding the environments of other solar system bodies. The HTP contributions were not isolated findings but continued to contribute to the planning and implementation of NASA spacecraft missions and to the development of the predictive computer models that have become the workhorses for analyzing satellite and ground-based measurements.

Grebowsky, J.

Data archaeology at ICES

This paper provides a brief overview of the function of the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES), both past and present, in particular in the context of its interest in compiling oceanographic data sets. Details are provided of the procedures it adopted to ensure adequate internationally collaborative marine investigations during the first part of the century, such as how it provided a forum for action by its member states, how it coordinated and published the results of scientific programs, and how it provided a foundation, through scientists employed in the ICES Office, for the establishment of the original oceanographic marine databases and associated products, and the scientific interpretation of the results. The growth and expansion of this area of ICES activity is then traced, taking into account the changing conditions for oceanographic data management resulting from the establishment of the National Data Centres, as well as the World Data Centres for Oceanography, which were created to meet the needs of the International Geophysical Year (IGY). Finally, there is a discussion of the way in which the very existence of ICES has proved to be a valuable source of old data, some of which have not yet been digitized, but which can be readily retrieved because they have been very carefully documented throughout the years. Lessons from this activity are noted, and suggestions are made on how the past experiences of ICES can be utilized to ensure the availability of marine data to present and future generations of scientists.

Dooley, Harry D.

The 1990 Western Pacific Geophysics meeting

The 1990 Western Pacific Geophysics Meeting was held in Kanazawa, Japan from 15-21 Aug. 1990. This was the first meeting of a new series of meetings for the American Geophysical Union, and it proved to be very successful in terms of the scientific program and attendance, which included over 1,000 participants. The intent of this meeting was an effort on the part of the American Geophysical Union (AGU) and several Japanese geophysical societies to gather individual Earth and space scientists at a major scientific meeting to focus on geophysical problems being studied in the western Pacific rim. The meeting was organized along the lines of a typical AGU annual meeting with some invited talks, many contributed talks, poster sessions, and with emphasis on presentations and informal discussions. The program committee consisted of scientists from both the U.S. and Japan. This meeting provided ample opportunities for U.S. and Japanese scientists to get to know each other and their works on a one-to-one basis. It was also a valuable opportunity for students studying geophysics to get together and interact with each other and with scientists from both the U.S. and Japan. There were 939 abstracts submitted to the conference and a total of 102 sessions designed as a result of the abstracts received. The topics of interest are as follows: space geodetic and observatory measurements for earthquake and tectonic studies; gravity, sea level, and vertical motion; variations in earth rotation and earth dynamics; sedimentary magnetism; global processes and precipitation; subsurface contaminant transport; U.S. Western Pacific Rim initiatives in hydrology; shelf and coastal circulation; tectonics, magmatism, and hydrothermal processes; earthquake prediction and hazard assessment; seismic wave propagation in realistic media; and dynamics and structure of plate boundaries and of the Earth's deep interior.

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Building a Transdisciplinary, Exascale-Capable Workforce for Geospace Science

Key Points: ●First-principles, self-consistent geospace modeling will require at least exascale-level computing capabilities; however, the technical skills necessary to develop such simulation codes are not taught as part of Heliophysics training/PhD programs. ●Developing exascale Heliophysics codes will require transdisciplinary collaborations between physicists, computer scientists, software engineers, data scientists, and applied mathematics. Such teams must be persistent and formed around specific skills, not specific problems. ●We must have stable, positive long-term career outcomes for Heliophysics scientific developers in order to retain knowledge of and promote future innovation in scientific algorithm development and advanced computing techniques. One such way to do this is by funding long-term scientific programming groups, akin to Heliophysics DRIVE Centers. ●We must have a balance between promoting innovation via funding short-term closed-source development and allowing the open-source community to benefit from and build on the newest scientific modeling techniques.

C Bard

On the utility of threads for data parallel programming

Threads provide a useful programming model for asynchronous behavior because of their ability to encapsulate units of work that can then be scheduled for execution at runtime, based on the dynamic state of a system. Recently, the threaded model has been applied to the domain of data parallel scientific codes, and initial reports indicate that the threaded model can produce performance gains over non-threaded approaches, primarily through the use of overlapping useful computation with communication latency. However, overlapping computation with communication is possible without the benefit of threads if the communication system supports asynchronous primitives, and this comparison has not been made in previous papers. This paper provides a critical look at the utility of lightweight threads as applied to data parallel scientific programming.

Fahringer, Thomas

Project Description for Meteor-3/TOMS (Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer)

This document provides Goddard Space Flight Center's (GSFC) Project Description for the Meteor-3/TOMS mission_ The Meteor-3/TOMS mission is a joint USA/USSR scientific program in which a US Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer (TOMS) instrument will fly on a USSR Meteor-3 spacecraft. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has initiated the Meteor-3/TOMS Project to provide a continuation of the decade-long global coverage obtained with the Nimbus-7 TOMS instrument. The scientific goal is to gather global total ozone data of an environmental importance to both countries as well as to all peoples of the earth.

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The atmospheric effects of stratospheric aircraft: A current consensus

In the early 1970's, a fleet of supersonic aircraft flying in the lower stratosphere was proposed. A large fleet was never built for economic, political, and environmental reasons. Technological improvements may make it economically feasible to develop supersonic aircraft for current markets. Some key results of earlier scientific programs designed to assess the impact of aircraft emissions on stratospheric ozone are reviewed, and factors that must be considered to assess the environmental impact of aircraft exhaust are discussed. These include the amount of nitrogen oxides injected in the stratosphere, horizontal transport, and stratosphere/troposphere assessment models are presented. Areas in which improvements in scientific understanding and model representation must be made to reduce the uncertainty in model calculations are identified.

Douglass, A. R.

GLOBEC (Global Ocean Ecosystems Dynamics: Northwest Atlantic program

The specific objective of the meeting was to plan an experiment in the Northwestern Atlantic to study the marine ecosystem and its role, together with that of climate and physical dynamics, in determining fisheries recruitment. The underlying focus of the GLOBEC initiative is to understand the marine ecosystem as it related to marine living resources and to understand how fluctuation in these resources are driven by climate change and exploitation. In this sense the goal is a solid scientific program to provide basic information concerning major fisheries stocks and the environment that sustains them. The plan is to attempt to reach this understanding through a multidisciplinary program that brings to bear new techniques as disparate as numerical fluid dynamic models of ocean circulation, molecular biology and modern acoustic imaging. The effort will also make use of the massive historical data sets on fisheries and the state of the climate in a coordinated manner.

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