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The looming threat orbital debris poses to assets in orbit demands solutions. As the orbital population grows, so does this hazard, but so does the sea of data. The problem is also an opportunity for interdisciplinary innovation and cooperation. This paper focuses on the data and information management aspect of developing solutions for a sustainable and safe orbital space environment. The corresponding author’s in-progress work to develop an orbital debris domain ontology is summarized in order to discuss knowledge modeling for this domain. Methodological approaches of this effort can also contribute to standards efforts and address terminological and policy questions. Leveraging the growing volumes of orbital debris and space situational awareness (SSA) data will create a more complete picture of the orbital space environment. Part of the solution will be: consistent and correct data interpretation, sharing orbital debris and SSA data in one form or another, terminology development & harmonization, and knowledge or domain modeling. To facilitate this, [Rovetto, 2015/16] discussed ontology development for the orbital debris domain. This paper lists concepts from that paper, and subsequently developed concepts [2-9]. Ontology engineering is an interdisciplinary field related to knowledge representation and reasoning in artificial intelligence, semantic technologies and the so-called semantic web. An ontology is effectively a computable and semantically rich terminology that presents a knowledge or domain model for a topic area. Expressions of knowledge or assertions are stored using formally defined term. This knowledge base is reasoned over to yield answers to queries, among other things. Ontologies have been developed in knowledge-based projects across various disciplines, and used for such things as search engines, chatbots, enterprise knowledge graphs, etc. Ontologies support: interoperability, automated reasoning, data sharing and integration, data search and retrieval, and communicating the meaning of data. The Orbital Debris Ontology (ODO), and related ontologies [Rovetto & Kelso 2016] [Rovetto 2016, 2017], were proposed to help achieve this. ODO, for instance, is intended as a domain ontology that can be used across federated databases, offering an explicitly specified set of concepts describing the orbital debris domain. Its meaning-rich taxonomy will provide a sharable semantics for orbital debris data to, in part, consistently communicate the meaning of data to both humans and machines, and tag data elements in space object catalogs to help afford inference tasks, decision support, knowledge discovery, and information integration. ODO and the SSA ontology (SSAO) is part of the overall Orbital Space Domain Ontology concept, which is conceived as a broader domain reference ontology. It aims to provide a knowledge representation structure of the orbital space environment, a common semantic model, and develop a sharable terminology. Collectively this will provide common meaning for datasets, a high-level taxonomy or classification for orbital space objects, and thus means to characterize space objects. Ongoing efforts have included using visualizations, R, JSON-LD, and contemporary semantic technologies. Potential applications and interdisciplinary partnerships include web-based platforms, web apps, visualizations, and academia projects. Community input and participation may yield a more widely understood domain model as well as facilitate terminological standards. For example, the proposed conceptual, terminological and ontological analysis may contribute to such efforts as the Space Debris Mitigation Requirements in the International Standards Organization by developing more precise, consistent and coherent terms and definitions. Projects that seek to develop in-house ontologies can use ODO and related ontologies as domain reference ontologies. This paper was developed independent of author affiliations. Readers are encouraged to contact corresponding author(1) with general interest and potential opportunities to support or realize the described project.
The X-33 flight visualization effort has resulted in the integration of high-resolution terrain data with vehicle position and attitude data for planned flights of the X-33 vehicle from its launch site at Edwards AFB, California, to landings at Michael Army Air Field, Utah, and Maelstrom AFB, Montana. Video and Web Site representations of these flight visualizations were produced. In addition, a totally new module was developed to control viewpoints in real-time using a joystick input. Efforts have been initiated, and are presently being continued, for real-time flight coverage visualizations using the data streams from the X-33 vehicle flights. The flight visualizations that have resulted thus far give convincing support to the expectation that the flights of the X-33 will be exciting and significant space flight milestones... flights of this nation's one-half scale predecessor to its first single-stage-to-orbit, fully-reusable launch vehicle system.
The Earth Science and Remote Sensing (ESRS) Data Portal, managed by the ESRS Unit at NASA's Johnson Space Center, is a web GIS environment built on Esri's ArcGIS Enterprise platform. Its current intent is to visualize, analyze, and distribute geospatial data to our internal organization and the communities of Houston and Galveston. Applications on the ESRS Data Portal include a Regional Remote Sensing web app, story maps developed for astronaut training, and a web scene for visualizing LiDAR.
The Data Mining project seeks to bring the capability of data visualization to NASA anomaly and problem reporting systems for the purpose of improving data trending, evaluations, and analyses. Currently NASA systems are tailored to meet the specific needs of its organizations. This tailoring has led to a variety of nomenclatures and levels of annotation for procedures, parts and anomalies making difficult the realization of the common causes for anomalies. Making significant observations and realizing the connection between these causes without a common way to view data is difficult to impossible. The Data Mining project is in its early stages of presenting a common visualization of normalized data through a web based portal. In this paper I detail what I have learned and what I have accomplished during my time as an intern toward the purpose of creating the project portal. I have gone through an iterative process of familiarization with the project and its goals, site design, research, modification and review on the road to creating a common method and location to view the visualized data created under this project.
For many years, the NASA Global Imagery Browse Services (GIBS) has worked closely with the Land, Atmosphere Near real-time Capability for EOS (Earth Observing System) (LANCE) system to provide near real-time imagery visualizations of AIRS (Atmospheric Infrared Sounder), MLS (Microwave Limb Sounder), MODIS (Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectrometer), OMI (Ozone Monitoring Instrument), and recently VIIRS (Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite) science parameters. These visualizations are readily available through standard web services and the NASA Worldview client. Access to near real-time imagery provides a critical capability to GIBS and Worldview users. GIBS continues to focus on improving its commitment to providing near real-time imagery for end-user applications. The focus of this presentation will be the following completed or planned GIBS system and imagery enhancements relating to near real-time imagery visualization.
In its investigations of Vesta and Ceres, NASA’s Dawn mission has returned spectacular data detailing the surfaces of these two prominent small bodies in our Solar System’s asteroid belt. In order to greatly facilitate dissemination, visualization, and analysis of this data, and public understanding of the mission, the Dawn mission has partnered with NASA’s Solar System Treks Project (SSTP). SSTP has recently released an update to the Vesta Trek online portal (https://trek.nasa.gov/vesta/) and has released a new Ceres Trek portal (https://trek.nasa.gov/ceres/). This presentation will showcase the use of the Ceres Trek and Vesta Trek portals and demonstrate how they can be used to visualize and analyze particularly interesting landforms such as the pitted terrain on Vesta and relic cryovolcanoes on Ceres. We will also demonstrate the new VR capability that has been added to the portals, allowing users to generate their own virtual reality flyovers for any user-defined paths along the bodies’ surfaces. In addition to highlighting the portals for Ceres and Vesta, the presentation will preview additional portals being planned/developed for other small bodies. NASA and JAXA have requested the development of a portal for the asteroid Ryugu to facilitate dissemination, visualization, and analysis of data from Japan’s Hayabusa2 mission, and a portal for Mars’ moon Phobos in support of mission planning for Japan’s MMX mission. We are also planning a portal for the asteroid Bennu with data from the OSIRIS-Rex mission. All of these products are efforts in the NASA Solar System Treks Project (SSTP), available at https://trek.nasa.gov. NASA's Solar System Trek online portals provide web-based suites of interactive data visualization and analysis tools to enable mission planners, planetary scientists, students, and the general public to access mapped data products from past and current missions for a growing number of planetary bodies including the Moon, Mars, Vesta, etc. These portals are being used for site selection and analysis by NASA and a number of its international partners, supporting upcoming missions. In addition to demonstrating the capabilities of selected portals in this presentation, we will solicit input from the community for ideas for future enhancements to the portals.
The NASA Langley Satellite ClOud and Radiation Property retrieval System (SatCORPS) team provides tools for retrieving cloud information from operational and research meteorological imager data. LEO and GEO satellite imagers are used for fusing hourly mosaics which create the Global Cloud Composite (GCC). The GCC provides global cloud products with a low latency which can help satisfy the growing needs of the research, modeling and business communities. The Esri ArcGIS system is used to transform the GCC data into Analysis Ready Data (ARD) which can be utilized for a variety of visualization and analysis activities in support of weather diagnoses/forecasting, Earth Sciences remote sensing applications, and disaster management. Additionally, the data is enabled as ArcGIS Image Services and Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) Web Mapping/Coverage Services to be consumed via API within a web mapping application. We will present a preview of the new interactive SatCORPS GCC web mapping application and its capabilities in allowing users to access and use GIS data within it.
The Lower Mekong Hydrological Decision Support system (LMHDSs) is a environmental data analysis tool developed at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center with funding from the SERVIR Applied Sciences Team and technical support from SERVIR Science Coordination Office (SCO). The web application allows stakeholders and decision-makers to view and download the inputs and outputs to the Soil and Water Assessment Tool(SWAT) model temporally and spatially. The front end is developed using JavaScript libraries like OpenLayers and Stock charts and the backend uses Django, a Python-based web framework. The web app provides several features, including visualizing map products, time-series plots, land-use/land-cover and associated soil information, and a data cart for downloading data. In addition, LMHDSs incorporates the NASAaccess software package, which provides seamless access to various climate and weather data products from NASA’s Earth observations portfolio. The application is region agnostic (any valid SWAT model can be used), modular (different components of the applications can be customized), and open (anyone can download and run it on their end). The web app is currently in use by the Mekong River Commission (MRC), a treaty-based regional intergovernmental organization that is made up of Mekong countries, as part of its hydrological decision support.
Studies have indicated that land cover and use changes in Northern Eurasia influence global climate system. However, the procedures are not fully understood and it is challenging to understand the interactions between the land changes in this region and the global climate. Having integrated data collections form multiple disciplines are important for studies of climate and environmental changes. Remote sensed and model data are particularly important die to sparse in situ measurements in many Eurasia regions especially in Siberia. The NASA GES DISC (Goddard Earth Sciences Data and Information Services Center) NEESPI data portal has generated infrastructure to provide satellite remote sensing and numerical model data for atmospheric, land surface, and cryosphere. Data searching, subsetting, and downloading functions are available. ONe useful tool is the Web-based online data analysis and visualization system, Giovanni (Goddard Interactive Online Visualization ANd aNalysis Infrastructure), which allows scientists to assess easily the state and dynamics of terrestrial ecosystems in Northern Eurasia and their interactions with global climate system. Recently, we have created a metadata database prototype to expand the NASA NEESPI data portal for providing a venue for NEESPI scientists fo find the desired data easily and leveraging data sharing within NEESPI projects. The database provides product level information. The desired data can be found through navigation and free text search and narrowed down by filtering with a number of constraints. In addition, we have developed a Web Map Service (WMS) prototype to allow access data and images from difference data resources.
NASA's Moon Trek (https://moontrek.jpl.nasa.gov) is the successor to and replacement for NASA's Lunar Mapping and Modeling Portal (LMMP). Released in 2017, Moon Trek features a new interface with improved ways to access, visualize, and analyze data. Moon Trek provides a web-based Portal and a suite of interactive visualization and analysis tools to enable mission planners, lunar scientists, and engineers to access mapped lunar data products from past and current lunar missions.
Geospatial weather visualization remains predominately a two-dimensional endeavor. Even popular advanced tools like the Nullschool Earth display 2-dimensional fields on a 3-dimensional globe. Yet much of the observational data and model output contains detailed three-dimensional fields. In 2014, NASA and JAXA (Japanese Space Agency) launched the Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) satellite. Its two instruments, the Dual-frequency Precipitation Radar (DPR) and GPM Microwave Imager (GMI) observe much of the Earth's atmosphere between 65 degrees North Latitude and 65 degrees South Latitude. As part of the analysis and visualization tools developed by the Precipitation Processing System (PPS) Group at NASA Goddard, a series of CesiumJS [Using Cesium Markup Language (CZML), JavaScript (JS) and JavaScript Object Notation (JSON)] -based globe viewers have been developed to improve data acquisition decision making and to enhance scientific investigation of the satellite data. Other demos have also been built to illustrate the capabilities of CesiumJS in presenting atmospheric data, including model forecasts of hurricanes, observed surface radar data, and gridded analyses of global precipitation. This talk will present these websites and the various workflows used to convert binary satellite and model data into a form easily integrated with CesiumJS.
The paper deals with some design issues involved in building a system that could visually represent the semantic structures of training materials and their underlying mental models. In particular, hypermedia-based semantic networks that instantiate classification problem solving strategies are thought to be a useful formalism for such representations; the complexity of these web structures can be best managed through visual depictions. It is also noted that a useful approach to implement in these hypermedia models would be some metrics of conceptual distance.
Time-varying datasets present difficult problems for both analysis and visualization. For example, the data may be terabytes in size, distributed across mass storage systems at several sites, with time scales ranging from femtoseconds to eons. In response to these challenges, ICASE and NASA Langley Research Center, in cooperation with ACM SIGGRAPH, organized the first symposium on visualizing time-varying data. The purpose was to bring the producers of time-varying data together with visualization specialists to assess open issues in the field, present new solutions, and encourage collaborative problem-solving. These proceedings contain the peer-reviewed papers which were presented at the symposium. They cover a broad range of topics, from methods for modeling and compressing data to systems for visualizing CFD simulations and World Wide Web traffic. Because the subject matter is inherently dynamic, a paper proceedings cannot adequately convey all aspects of the work. The accompanying video proceedings provide additional context for several of the papers.
Two new technologies, the FASTexpedition and Remote FAST, have been developed that provide remote, 3D, high resolution, dynamic, interactive viewing of scientific data (such as simulations or measurements of fluid dynamics). The FASTexpedition permits one to access scientific data from the World Wide Web, take guided expeditions through the data, and continue with self controlled expeditions through the data. Remote FAST permits collaborators at remote sites to simultaneously view an analysis of scientific data being controlled by one of the collaborators. Control can be transferred between sites. These technologies are now being used for remote collaboration in joint university, industry, and NASA projects in computational fluid dynamics (CFD) and wind tunnel testing. Also, NASA Ames Research Center has initiated a project to make scientific data and guided expeditions through the data available as FASTexpeditions on the World Wide Web for educational purposes. Previously, remote visualiZation of dynamic data was done using video format (transmitting pixel information) such as video conferencing or MPEG movies on the Internet. The concept for this new technology is to send the raw data (e.g., grids, vectors, and scalars) along with viewing scripts over the Internet and have the pixels generated by a visualization tool running on the viewer's local workstation. The visualization tool that is currently used is FAST (Flow Analysis Software Toolkit). The advantages of this new technology over using video format are: 1. The visual is much higher in resolution (1280xl024 pixels with 24 bits of color) than typical video format transmitted over the network. 2. The form of the visualization can be controlled interactively (because the viewer is interactively controlling the visualization tool running on his workstation). 3. A rich variety of guided expeditions through the data can be included easily. 4. A capability is provided for other sites to see a visual analysis of one site as the analysis is interactively performed. Control of the analysis can be passed from site to site. 5. The scenes can be viewed in 3D using stereo vision. 6. The network bandwidth used for the visualization using this new technology is much smaller than when using video format. (The measured peak bandwidth used was 1 Kbit/sec whereas the measured bandwidth for a small video picture was 500 Kbits/sec.)
Two new technologies, the FASTexpedition and Remote FAST, have been developed that provide remote, 3D (three dimensional), high resolution, dynamic, interactive viewing of scientific data. The FASTexpedition permits one to access scientific data from the World Wide Web, take guided expeditions through the data, and continue with self controlled expeditions through the data. Remote FAST permits collaborators at remote sites to simultaneously view an analysis of scientific data being controlled by one of the collaborators. Control can be transferred between sites. These technologies are now being used for remote collaboration in joint university, industry, and NASA projects. Also, NASA Ames Research Center has initiated a project to make scientific data and guided expeditions through the data available as FASTexpeditions on the World Wide Web for educational purposes. Previously, remote visualization of dynamic data was done using video format (transmitting pixel information) such as video conferencing or MPEG (Motion Picture Expert Group) movies on the Internet. The concept for this new technology is to send the raw data (e.g., grids, vectors, and scalars) along with viewing scripts over the Internet and have the pixels generated by a visualization tool running on the viewers local workstation. The visualization tool that is currently used is FAST (Flow Analysis Software Toolkit). The advantages of this new technology over using video format are: (1) The visual is much higher in resolution (1280x1024 pixels with 24 bits of color) than typical video format transmitted over the network. (2) The form of the visualization can be controlled interactively (because the viewer is interactively controlling the visualization tool running on his workstation). (3) A rich variety of guided expeditions through the data can be included easily. (4) A capability is provided for other sites to see a visual analysis of one site as the analysis is interactively performed. Control of the analysis can be passed from site to site. (5) The scenes can be viewed in 3D using stereo vision. (6) The network bandwidth for the visualization using this new technology is much smaller than when using video format. (The measured peak bandwidth used was 1 Kbit/sec whereas the measured bandwidth for a small video picture was 500 Kbits/sec.) This talk will illustrate the use of these new technologies and present a proposal for using these technologies to improve science education.
This report summarizes development of the ADTT web-based design environment by the ELORET team in 2000. The Advanced Design Technology Testbed had been in development for several years, with demonstration applications restricted to aerodynamic analyses of subsonic aircraft. The key changes achieved this year were improvements in Web-based accessibility, evaluation of collaborative visualization, remote invocation of geometry updates and performance analysis, and application to aerospace system analysis. Significant effort was also devoted to post-processing of data, chiefly through comparison of similar data for alternative vehicle concepts. Such comparison is an essential requirement for designers to make informed choices between alternatives. The next section of this report provides more discussion of the goals for ADTT development. Section 3 provides screen shots from a sample session in the ADTT environment, including Login and navigation to the project of interest, data inspection, analysis execution and output evaluation. The following section provides discussion of implementation details and recommendations for future development of the software and information technologies that provide the key functionality of the ADTT system. Section 5 discusses the integration architecture for the system, which links machines running different operating systems and provides unified access to data stored in distributed locations. Security is a significant issue for this system, especially for remote access to NAS machines, so Section 6 discusses several architectural considerations with respect to security. Additional details of some aspects of ADTT development are included in Appendices.
Since 1988, the Scientific Visualization Studio(SVS) at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center has produced scientific visualizations of NASA s scientific research and remote sensing data for public outreach. These visualizations take the form of images, animations, and end-to-end systems and have been used in many venues: from the network news to science programs such as NOVA, from museum exhibits at the Smithsonian to White House briefings. This presentation will give an overview of the major activities and accomplishments of the SVS, and some of the most interesting projects and systems developed at the SVS will be described. Particular emphasis will be given to the practices and procedures by which the SVS creates visualizations, from the hardware and software used to the structures and collaborations by which products are designed, developed, and delivered to customers. The web-based archival and delivery system for SVS visualizations at svs.gsfc.nasa.gov will also be described.