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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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85 records · Page 5

A Spatiotemporal Indexing Approach for Efficient Processing of Big Array-Based Climate Data with MapReduce

Climate observations and model simulations are producing vast amounts of array-based spatiotemporal data. Efficient processing of these data is essential for assessing global challenges such as climate change, natural disasters, and diseases. This is challenging not only because of the large data volume, but also because of the intrinsic high-dimensional nature of geoscience data. To tackle this challenge, we propose a spatiotemporal indexing approach to efficiently manage and process big climate data with MapReduce in a highly scalable environment. Using this approach, big climate data are directly stored in a Hadoop Distributed File System in its original, native file format. A spatiotemporal index is built to bridge the logical array-based data model and the physical data layout, which enables fast data retrieval when performing spatiotemporal queries. Based on the index, a data-partitioning algorithm is applied to enable MapReduce to achieve high data locality, as well as balancing the workload. The proposed indexing approach is evaluated using the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Modern-Era Retrospective Analysis for Research and Applications (MERRA) climate reanalysis dataset. The experimental results show that the index can significantly accelerate querying and processing (10 speedup compared to the baseline test using the same computing cluster), while keeping the index-to-data ratio small (0.0328). The applicability of the indexing approach is demonstrated by a climate anomaly detection deployed on a NASA Hadoop cluster. This approach is also able to support efficient processing of general array-based spatiotemporal data in various geoscience domains without special configuration on a Hadoop cluster.

big data↗

Computer Science Research Needs for Parallel Discrete Event Simulation (PDES)

Historically, scientific computing efforts have demonstrated the clear need for, and effective use of, supercomputing with traditional time-stepped simulations. Nevertheless, there are several areas in the mission spaces of the U.S. Department of Energy and other agencies waiting to tap advanced computing research using a different, discrete event style of modeling, simulation, and analysis. These span a wide spectrum of applications including energy grid resilience, urban planning and policy, transportation science, building technologies, emergency response and planning, environmental impact analysis, computational epidemiology, Internet communications, cyber security, and cyber-physical systems, to name only a few. Even within traditional scientific applications, the role of discrete event modes of execution is increasing in the form of new event-based mathematical solvers such as quantized state integration methods and discrete-continuous hybrid system solvers. Co-design of advanced supercomputing hardware systems is another area that exploits discrete event simulation at its core for effective analyses. Complex systems, entity behaviors and interconnections play a significant role in all these applications, which are mapped to large-scale models with discrete event formulations. To make advancements in all the aforementioned scientific areas, many technical aspects need to be more thoroughly studied and deeply understood in parallel discrete event simulation (PDES). The unique dynamics inherent in a discrete event modeling approach, by their very nature, intersect and influence the entire stack of the computing system, including (a) the unique nature of the instruction sets exercised in PDES workloads without a predominance of high-precision floating point operations, (b) virtual time-constrained multi-threaded execution of many logical processes per processor, (c) extremely variable and difficult to predict network traffic characteristics, (d) interfaces and inter-dependencies with machine learning and artificial intelligence codes at higher software layers, and (e) highly challenging load balancing needs, especially in effectively accounting for accelerated/extremely heterogeneous computing in current and future high-performance computing systems. Efficient and accurate parallel execution of PDES workloads is also dominated by challenges in dealing with their asynchronous concurrency fundamentally present at the model level. Conservative synchronization, optimistic/speculative synchronization, and their hybrid schemes open new questions in fundamental computer science with respect to reversibility of computation and prediction (lookahead) of behaviors inherent within model codes. On the implementation front, there are relatively few scalable, general-purpose parallel discrete event simulators in the world, and even fewer have been studied on emerging hardware platforms. To enable scientific advances using PDES, the research needs in computer science must also be pursued and met in the intersection of the algorithmic and hardware-aware aspects of scalable PDES engines. This report is aimed at capturing a computer science-oriented view of this important area of research in PDES, presenting a sample of important applications with their inherent discrete event technology elements. Needs are outlined in core areas of parallel discrete event research as well as cross-cutting directions in computer science research that positively impact scientific advancements across several important application areas. A selection of priority research opportunities in advanced computing for PDES is identified to serve as reference for key research topics and their order of importance for scientific advancements.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

Exploiting Internal Parallelism for Address Translation in Solid-State Drives

Solid-state Drives (SSDs) have changed the landscape of storage systems and present a promising storage solution for data-intensive applications due to their low latency, high bandwidth, and low power consumption compared to traditional hard disk drives. SSDs achieve these desirable characteristics using internal parallelism—parallel access to multiple internal flash memory chips—and a Flash Translation Layer (FTL) that determines where data are stored on those chips so that they do not wear out prematurely. However, current state-of-the-art cache-based FTLs like the Demand-based Flash Translation Layer (DFTL) do not allow IO schedulers to take full advantage of internal parallelism, because they impose a tight coupling between the logical-to-physical address translation and the data access. In this study to address this limitation, we introduce a new FTL design called Parallel-DFTL that works with the DFTL to decouple address translation operations from data accesses. Parallel-DFTL separates address translation and data access operations into different queues, allowing the SSD to use concurrent flash accesses for both types of operations. We also present a Parallel-LRU cache replacement algorithm to improve the concurrency of address translation operations. To compare Parallel-DFTL against existing FTL approaches, we present a Parallel-DFTL performance model and compare its predictions against those for DFTL and an ideal page-mapping approach. We also implemented the Parallel-DFTL approach in an SSD simulator using real device parameters, and used trace-driven simulation to evaluate Parallel-DFTL’s efficacy. Our evaluation results show that Parallel-DFTL improved the overall performance by up to 32% for the real IO workloads we tested, and by up to two orders of magnitude with synthetic test workloads. Finally, we also found that Parallel-DFTL is able to achieve reasonable performance with a very small cache size and that it provides the best benefit for those workloads with large request size or with high write ratio.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

Time Course of Effects of Carbon Dioxide Exposure on Physical and Cognitive Performance in a Simulated Surface Extravehicular Activity Contingency Scenario

INTRODUCTION Carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) is a metabolic byproduct produced by humans that must be scrubbed from the atmosphere by environmental control and life support systems in space vehicles and spacesuits to prevent buildup. Current nominal CO 2 limits are set by NASA Standard 3001, however, limits during contingency situations are not specified. The purpose of this study was to characterize and quantify the physiological, cognitive, and self-assessed symptom and performance metrics as a function of inspired CO 2 (P I CO 2 ) during a simulated 1-hour contingency lunar EVA scenario in virtual reality (VR). METHODS Fifteen healthy subjects completed 7 simulated EVA scenarios walking on a passive treadmill for one hour breathing dry, ambient air mixed with added CO 2 in a blind, counterbalanced manner (P I CO 2 : 0, 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30 mmHg) simulating a 2.0 km contingency EVA walkback to a habitat on the lunar surface in the event of a CO 2 scrubber malfunction. Subjects were immersed in a Lunar VR environment and asked to maintain their walking speed between 2.1 km/h and an upper limit individually calibrated to a fixed metabolic workload of 1.3 L/min of O 2 consumption, and performed periodic cognitive tasks and continuous cardiopulmonary measurements. Self-assessments of symptoms and task performance were measured via verbal Likert-scale survey at the onset of the walkback and at 10-minute intervals thereafter. RESULTS The time course of cardiopulmonary, cognitive, and self-reported responses at each level of P I CO 2 will be presented. All 15 subjects were able to complete the 1-hr walk back task at all CO 2 levels. Physiological responses were rapid, typically within 1 to 5 minutes. No effects of time were detected for cognitive measures. Symptomatic ratings of headache, shortness of breath, and fatigue demonstrated a time-course development, reaching asymptote after 40 minutes of CO 2 exposure. DISCUSSION These findings will inform the posture of risk associated with CO 2 exposure on human health and performance during microgravity and planetary surface operations, This will help inform decisions related to space suit and environmental life support hardware requirements and EVA operational limits for contingency extravehicular activity (EVA) scenarios.

carbon dioxide↗

Regional-scale fault-to-structure earthquake simulations with the EQSIM framework: Workflow maturation and computational performance on GPU-accelerated exascale platforms

Continuous advancements in scientific and engineering understanding of earthquake phenomena, combined with the associated development of representative physics-based models, is providing a foundation for high-performance, fault-to-structure earthquake simulations. However, regional-scale applications of high-performance models have been challenged by the computational requirements at the resolutions required for engineering risk assessments. The EarthQuake SIMulation (EQSIM) framework, a software application development under the US Department of Energy (DOE) Exascale Computing Project, is focused on overcoming the existing computational barriers and enabling routine regional-scale simulations at resolutions relevant to a breadth of engineered systems. This multidisciplinary software development—drawing upon expertise in geophysics, engineering, applied math and computer science—is preparing the advanced computational workflow necessary to fully exploit the DOE’s exaflop computer platforms coming online in the 2023 to 2024 timeframe. Achievement of the computational performance required for high-resolution regional models containing upward of hundreds of billions to trillions of model grid points requires numerical efficiency in every phase of a regional simulation. This includes run time start-up and regional model generation, effective distribution of the computational workload across thousands of computer nodes, efficient coupling of regional geophysics and local engineering models, and application-tailored highly efficient transfer, storage, and interrogation of very large volumes of simulation data. This article summarizes the most recent advancements and refinements incorporated in the workflow design for the EQSIM integrated fault-to-structure framework, which are based on extensive numerical testing across multiple graphics processing unit (GPU)-accelerated platforms, and demonstrates the computational performance achieved on the world’s first exaflop computer platform through representative regional-scale earthquake simulations for the San Francisco Bay Area in California, USA.

58 GEOSCIENCES↗

Psychophysiological Monitoring of Aerospace Crew State

As next-generation space exploration missions necessitate increasingly autonomous systems, there is a critical need to better detect and anticipate crewmember interactions with these systems. The success of present and future autonomous technology in exploration spaceflight is ultimately dependent upon safe and efficient interaction with the human operator. Optimal interaction is particularly important for surface missions during highly coordinated extravehicular activity (EVA), which consists of high physical and cognitive demands with limited ground support. Crew functional state may be affected by a number of variables including workload, stress, and motivation. Real-time assessments of crew state that do not require a crewmember’s time and attention to complete will be especially important to assess operational performance and behavioral health during flight. In response to the need for objective, passive assessment of crew state, the aim of this work is to develop an accurate and precise prediction model of human functional state for surface EVA using multi-modal psychophysiological sensing. The psychophysiological monitoring approach relies on extracting a set of features from physiological signals and using these features to classify an operator’s cognitive state. This work aims to compile a non-invasive sensor suite to collect physiological data in real-time. Training data during cognitive and more complex functional tasks will be used to develop a classifier to discriminate high and low cognitive workload crew states. The classifier will then be tested in an operationally relevant EVA simulation to predict cognitive workload over time. Once a crew state is determined, further research into specific countermeasures, such as decision support systems, would be necessary to optimize the automation and improve crew state and operational performance.

Wusk, Grace C.↗

Persistent Octrees for Parallel Mesh Refinement Through Non-Volatile Byte-Addressable Memory

We report that octree-based mesh adaptation has enabled simulations of complex physical phenomena. Existing meshing algorithms were proposed with the assumption that computer memory is volatile. Consequently, for failure recovery, the in-core algorithms need to save memory states as snapshots with slow file I/Os. The out-of-core algorithms store octants on disks for persistence. However, neither of them was designed to leverage unique characteristics of non-volatile byte-addressable memory (NVBM). In this paper, we propose a novel data structure Distributed Persistent Merged octree (DPM-octree) for both meshing and in-memory storage of persistent octrees using NVBM. It is a multi-version data structure and can recover from failures using its earlier persistent version stored in NVBM. In addition, we design a feature-directed sampling approach to help dynamically transform the DPM-octree layout for reducing NVBM-induced memory write latency. DPM-octree uses parity trees which are created using erasure coding and stored in NVBM to support low-latency in-memory octant recovery after data loss. DPM-octree has been successfully integrated with Gerris software for simulation of fluid dynamics. Finally, our experimental results with real-world scientific workloads show that DPM-octree scales up to 1.1 billion mesh elements with 1000 processors on the Titan supercomputer.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

Demonstrating the data center as a flexible grid asset using a C-HIL setup

Increasing data center demand is outpacing grid infrastructure development. Artificial intelligence workloads and hyperscale cloud growth are creating unprecedented demand for power, while traditional grid expansion faces multiyear development timelines. Verrus is developing an innovative datacenter solution for this challenge, data centers that act as active grid-supportive assets rather than passive loads. Our approach integrates a novel grid-aware power flow management system with battery energy storage systems(BESS) into a microgrid-controlled, medium-voltage power distribution architecture that delivers critical capabilities, such as: * Fast response to grid disturbances such over/ under voltage or over/ under frequency * Demand flexibility that can service requests from the utility within 10 s * Uninterrupted transition to islanded operation during grid outages * Continuous uptime assurance for compute loads while maintaining all customer service level agreements. Through Verrus' strategic partnership with the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), these capabilities were validated using NREL's Advanced Research on Integrated Energy Systems (ARIES) virtual emulation environment to model a 70-MW grid-interactive data center. This paper outlines the design, methodology, and results of this emulated deployment, demonstrating that data centers can provide both critical load resilience and ancillary grid support without compromising uptime requirements. Specifically, we present a digital real time simulation of a 70 MW data center integrated with a physical microgrid controller, and demonstrate the data center response in the event of a grid voltage and frequency event, utility demand response request and utility outage.

24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗

Supercomputers, Clouds and Grids powered by BigPanDA for Brain studies

The PanDA WMS - Production and Distributed Analysis Workload Management System - has been developed and used by the ATLAS experiment at the LHC (Large Hadron Collider) for all data processing and analysis challenges. BigPanDA is an extension of the PanDA WMS to run ATLAS and non-ATLAS applications on Leadership Class Facilities and supercomputers, as well as traditional grid and cloud resources. The success of the BigPanDA project has drawn attention from other compute intensive sciences such as biology. In 2017, a pilot project was started between BigPanDA and the Blue Brain Project (BBP) of the Ecole Polytechnique Federal de Lausanne (EPFL) located in Lausanne, Switzerland. This proof of concept project is aimed at demonstrating the efficient application of the BigPanDA system to support the complex scientific workflow of the BBP, which relies on using a mix of desktop, cluster and supercomputers to reconstruct and simulate accurate models of brain tissue.

Computer Science↗

Integrating and Characterizing HPC Task Runtime Systems for hybrid AI-HPC workloads

Scientific workflows increasingly involve both HPC and machine-learning tasks, combining MPI-based simulations, training, and inference in a single execution. Launchers such as Slurm’s srun constrain concurrency and throughput, making them unsuitable for dynamic and heterogeneous workloads. We present a performance study of RADICAL-Pilot (RP) integrated with Flux and Dragon, two complementary runtime systems that enable hierarchical resource management and high-throughput function execution. Using synthetic and production-scale workloads on Frontier, we characterize the task execution properties of RP across runtime configurations. RP+Flux sustains up to 930 tasks/s, and RP+Flux+Dragon exceeds 1,500 tasks/s with over 99.6% utilization. In contrast, srun peaks at 152 tasks/s and degrades with scale, with utilization below 50%. For IMPECCABLE.v2 drug discovery campaign, RP+Flux reduces makespan by 30–60% relative to srun/Slurm and increases throughput more than four times on up to 1,024. These results demonstrate hybrid runtime integration in RP as a scalable approach for hybrid AI-HPC workloads.

HPC-AI↗

Reaching new peaks for the future of the CMS HTCondor Global Pool

The CMS experiment at CERN employs a distributed computing infrastructure to satisfy its data processing and simulation needs. The CMS Submission Infrastructure team manages a dynamic HTCondor pool, aggregating mainly Grid clusters worldwide, but also HPC, Cloud and opportunistic resources. This CMS Global Pool, which currently involves over 70 computing sites worldwide and peaks at 350k CPU cores, is employed to successfully manage the simultaneous execution of up to 150k tasks. While the present infrastructure is sufficient to harness the current computing power scales, CMS latest estimates predict a noticeable expansion in the amount of CPU that will be required in order to cope with the massive data increase of the High-Luminosity LHC (HL-LHC) era, planned to start in 2027. This contribution presents the latest results of the CMS Submission Infrastructure team in exploring and expanding the scalability reach of our Global Pool, in order to preventively detect and overcome any barriers in relation to the HL-LHC goals, while maintaining high effciency in our workload scheduling and resource utilization.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗

Evaluation of Multiple Flow Constrained Area Capacity Setting Methods for Collaborative Trajectory Options Program

The purpose of this study was to compare flow constrained area (FCA) capacity setting methods for Collaborative Trajectory Options Program (CTOP) as they pertain to the Integrated Demand Management (IDM) concept. IDM uses flow balancing to manage air traffic across multiple FCAs with a common downstream constraint, as well as constraints at the respective FCA locations. FCA capacity rates can be set manually, but generating capacities for multiple, interdependent FCAs could potentially over-burden a user. A new enhancement to CTOP called the FCA Balance Algorithm (FBA) was developed at NASA Ames Research Center to improve the process of allocating capacity across multiple flow constrained segments in the airspace. The FBA evaluates the predicted demand and capacity across multiple FCAs and dynamically generates capacity settings for the FCAs that best meet capacity limits for all identified constraints. In a human-in-the-loop simulation study, both manual and automated capacity setting methods were evaluated in terms of their overall feasibility using measures of system performance, human performance, and qualitative feedback. Subject matter experts were asked to use three different methods to allocate capacity to three FCAs, either (1) by manually setting capacity for every 60-minute time window, (2) by manually setting capacity for every 15-minute time window, or (3) by using the FBA capability to automatically generate capacity settings. Results showed no significant differences in terms of overall system performance, indicated by similar ground delay and airport throughput numbers between methods. However, differences in individual strategies afforded by the manual methods allowed some participants to achieve system-wide delay that was much lower than the average. The FBA was the fastest method of capacity setting, and it received the lowest subjective rating scores on physical task load, mental task load, task difficulty and task complexity out of the three methods. Finally, participants explained through qualitative feedback that there were many benefits to using the FBA, such as ease of use, accuracy, and low risk of human input error. Participants did not experience the same limitations with the FBA that they did with the manual methods, such as reduced accuracy in the 60-minute manual condition, or high complexity in the 15-minute/manual condition. These results suggest that the FBA automation enhancement to CTOP maintains system performance while improving human performance. Therefore, the FBA could be introduced as a way to mitigate operator workload while planning a CTOP.

NextGen↗

Evaluation of Multiple Flow Constrained Area Capacity Setting Methods for Collaborative Trajectory Options Program

The purpose of this study was to compare flow constrained area (FCA) capacity setting methods for Collaborative Trajectory Options Program (CTOP) as they pertain to the Integrated Demand Management (IDM) concept. IDM uses flow balancing to manage air traffic across multiple FCAs with a common downstream constraint, as well as constraints at the respective FCA locations. FCA capacity rates can be set manually, but generating capacities for multiple, interdependent FCAs could potentially over-burden a user. A new enhancement to CTOP called the FCA Balance Algorithm (FBA) was developed at NASA Ames Research Center to improve the process of allocating capacity across multiple flow constrained segments in the airspace. The FBA evaluates the predicted demand and capacity across multiple FCAs and dynamically generates capacity settings for the FCAs that best meet capacity limits for all identified constraints. In a human-in-the-loop simulation study, both manual and automated capacity setting methods were evaluated in terms of their overall feasibility using measures of system performance, human performance, and qualitative feedback. Subject matter experts were asked to use three different methods to allocate capacity to three FCAs, either (1) by manually setting capacity for every 60-minute time window, (2) by manually setting capacity for every 15-minute time window, or (3) by using the FBA capability to automatically generate capacity settings. Results showed no significant differences in terms of overall system performance, indicated by similar ground delay and airport throughput numbers between methods. However, differences in individual strategies afforded by the manual methods allowed some participants to achieve system-wide delay that was much lower than the average. The FBA was the fastest method of capacity setting, and it received the lowest subjective rating scores on physical task load, mental task load, task difficulty and task complexity out of the three methods. Finally, participants explained through qualitative feedback that there were many benefits to using the FBA, such as ease of use, accuracy, and low risk of human input error. Participants did not experience the same limitations with the FBA that they did with the manual methods, such as reduced accuracy in the 60-minute manual condition, or high complexity in the 15-minute/manual condition. These results suggest that the FBA automation enhancement to CTOP maintains system performance while improving human performance. Therefore, the FBA could be introduced as a way to mitigate operator workload while planning a CTOP.

NextGen↗