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Automation technology using Geographic Information System (GIS)

Airport Surface Movement Area is but one of the actions taken to increase the capacity and safety of existing airport facilities. The System Integration Branch (SIB) has designed an integrated system consisting of an electronic moving display in the cockpit, and includes display of taxi routes which will warn controllers and pilots of the position of other traffic and warning information automatically. Although, this system has in test simulation proven to be accurate and helpful; the initial process of obtaining an airport layout of the taxi-routes and designing each of them is a very tedious and time-consuming process. Other methods of preparing the display maps are being researched. One such method is the use of the Geographical Information System (GIS). GIS is an integrated system of computer hardware and software linking topographical, demographic and other resource data that is being referenced. The software can support many areas of work with virtually unlimited information compatibility due to the system's open architecture. GIS will allow us to work faster with increased efficiency and accuracy while providing decision making capabilities. GIS is currently being used at the Langley Research Center with other applications and has been validated as an accurate system for that task. GIS usage for our task will involve digitizing aerial photographs of the topology for each taxi-runway and identifying each position according to its specific spatial coordinates. The information currently being used can be integrated with the GIS system, due to its ability to provide a wide variety of user interfaces. Much more research and data analysis will be needed before this technique will be used, however we are hopeful this will lead to better usage of man-power and technological capabilities for the future.

Brooks, Cynthia L.↗

Nimbus-7 TOMS Version 7 Calibration

This report describes an improved instrument characterization used for the Version 7 processing of the Nimbus-7 Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer (TOMS) data record. An improved internal calibration technique referred to as spectral discrimination is used to provide long-term calibration precision of +/- 1%/decade in total column ozone amount. A revised wavelength scale results in a day one calibration that agrees with other satellite and ground-based measurements of total ozone, while a wavelength independent adjustment of the initial radiometric calibration constants provides good agreement with surface reflectivity measured by other satellite-borne ultraviolet measurements. The impact of other aspects of the Nimbus-7 TOMS instrument performance are also discussed. The Version 7 data should be used in all future studies involving the Nimbus-7 TOMS measurements of ozone. The data are available through the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center's Distributive Active Archive Center (DAAC).

Wellemeyer, C. G.↗

What Caused the August 2002 Catastrophic Floods in Central Europe?

The catastrophic August 2002 floods in central Europe followed very intense rains over a span of several days, reported over a large region. On Aug. 12 meteorological stations over an elongated swath, from the vicinity of Saltzburg (Austria) in the south to the vicinity of Berlin in the north, reported precipitation exceeding 100 mm/day. Synoptic analysis points to a jet streak in the mid-Atlantic. moving eastward, which reached Spain on about 9th of August. An understanding of the mechanism that ultimately produced the unprecedented rains was derived conveniently from the GEOS 3 Model developed at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center. Examining the scenarios of omega, we observe on Aug. 10, OOZ, a center of ascending vertical motions, stronger than 0.6 Pa/s at the 700 hPa level over the western Mediterranean. Advecting moist and warm air to higher levels from the near-ocean level, the center moved eastward, reaching the northern Adriatic on Aug. 11, OOZ, then continuing northeast to the regions where most intense precipitation was reported on Aug. 12. The omega at 850 hPa shows a closely similar pattern but especially interesting is the 850 omega pattern on Aug. 12, 12Z, which shows descending motions stronger than 0.4 Pa/s over the eastern Po Valley (northern Italy), and an elongated region of ascending motions stronger than 1.0 Pa/s coinciding in extent with the extreme-precipitation region on that day. At that time, the cyclone which formed over the Po Valley, was centered on eastern Czech Republic, producing on its western side these strong ascending motions over the precipitation region. The pattern of the surface-pressure lows provides further insight into the processes, and specifically, the Aug. 12,06Z map, shows a 996 mb low over the western Czech Republic. The flooding following the extreme rains was acerbated by the fact that river-channels were made narrower over the recent decades by the urbanization of river banks.

Otterman, J.↗

Digital Particle Image Velocimetry (DPIV) Used for Space-Time Correlations in Nozzle Flow

An optical measurement technique known as Digital Particle Image Velocimetry (DPIV) was used previously to characterize the first- and second-order statistical properties of both cold and hot jet flows from externally mixed nozzles in NASA Glenn Research Center's Nozzle Acoustic Test Rig. In this technique, an electronic camera records particles entrained in a flow as a laser light sheet is pulsed at two instances in time. Correlation processing of the recorded particle image pairs yields the two-component velocity field across the imaged plane of the flow. The information acquired using DPIV is being used to improve our understanding of the decay of turbulence in jet flows-a critical element for understanding the acoustic properties of the flow. Recently, two independent DPIV systems were installed in Glenn's Small Hot Jet Acoustic Rig, enabling multiplane correlations in time and space. The data were collected over a range of different Mach numbers and temperature ratios. DPIV system 1 was fixed to a large traverse rig, and DPIV system 2 was mounted on a small traverse system mounted on the large traverse frame. The light sheets from the two DPIV systems were aligned to lie in the same axial plane, with DPIV system 2 being independently traversed downstream along the flow direction. For each measurement condition, the DPIV systems were started at a fully overlapping orientation. A polarization separation technique was used to avoid cross-talk between the two systems. Then, the DPIV systems fields were shifted axially apart, in successively increasing steps. The downstream DPIV system 2 was triggered at a short time delay after the upstream DPIV system 1, where the time delay was proportional to the convective flow velocity in the shear layer of the jet flow and the axial separation of the two DPIV systems. The acquired data were processed to obtain the instantaneous velocity vector maps over a range of time delays and spatial separations. The velocity fields from the different DPIV systems were then cross-correlated to determine the degree of correlation remaining in the flow as the downstream convection distance was increased. The new data provide Lagrangian measurements of the convective turbulent structures in the shear layer of an exhaust nozzle. These measurements, obtained in both cold and hot flows, will be used to validate and correct models for space-time velocity correlations-long a missing key to predicting jet noise.

Wernet, Mark P.↗

The Space Cube Architecture -- A Road Map for the Future

Concepts of using modular computer system processing units using today's technology are described. Topics covered are: reasons for modularizing, reasons for stacking modules, module packaging & inter- module packaging, interconnection between modules, space-bus require- ments, gateway features, general architecture, single string and dual string architecture (and examples), and triple module redundancy.

space cube architecture modular computer system pr↗

Automated daily processing of more than 1000 ground-based GPS receivers for studying intense ionospheric storms

To take advantage of the vast amount of GPS data, researchers use a number of techniques to estimate satellite and receiver interfrequency biases and the total electron content (TEC) of the ionosphere. Most techniques estimate vertical ionospheric structure and, simultaneously, hardware-related biases treated as nuisance parameters. These methods often are limited to 200 GPS receivers and use a sequential least squares or Kalman filter approach. The biases are later removed from the measurements to obtain unbiased TEC. In our approach to calibrating GPS receiver and transmitter interfrequency biases we take advantage of all available GPS receivers using a new processing algorithm based on the Global Ionospheric Mapping (GIM) software developed at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. This new capability is designed to estimate receiver biases for all stations. We solve for the instrumental biases by modeling the ionospheric delay and removing it from the observation equation using precomputed GIM maps. The precomputed GIM maps rely on 200 globally distributed GPS receivers to establish the ''background'' used to model the ionosphere at the remaining 800 GPS sites.

total electron content (TEC)↗

Automated Classification of Thermal Infrared Spectra Using Self-organizing Maps

Existing and planned space missions to a variety of planetary and satellite surfaces produce an ever increasing volume of spectral data. Understanding the scientific informational content in this large data volume is a daunting task. Fortunately various statistical approaches are available to assess such data sets. Here we discuss an automated classification scheme based on Kohonen Self-organizing maps (SOM) we have developed. The SUM process produces an output layer were spectra having similar properties lie in close proximity to each other. One major effort is partitioning this output layer into appropriate regions. This is prefonned by defining dosed regions based upon the strength of the boundaries between adjacent cells in the SOM output layer. We use the Davies-Bouldin index as a measure of the inter-class similarities and intra-class dissimilarities that determines the optimum partition of the output layer, and hence number of SOM clusters. This allows us to identify the natural number of clusters formed from the spectral data. Mineral spectral libraries prepared at Arizona State University (ASU) and John Hopkins University (JHU) are used to test and evaluate the classification scheme. We label the library sample spectra in a hierarchical scheme with class, subclass, and mineral group names. We use a portion of the spectra to train the SOM, i.e. produce the output layer, while the remaining spectra are used to test the SOM. The test spectra are presented to the SOM output layer and assigned membership to the appropriate cluster. We then evaluate these assignments to assess the scientific meaning and accuracy of the derived SOM classes as they relate to the labels. We demonstrate that unsupervised classification by SOMs can be a useful component in autonomous systems designed to identify mineral species from reflectance and emissivity spectra in the therrnal IR.

Roush, Ted L.↗

Robust incoherent fiber optic bundle decoder

Apparatus and method for calibrating an incoherent fiber optic bundle for use in transmitting visual or infrared coherent images. The apparatus includes a computer, a computer video monitor, an objective lens adjacent to the input end of the bundle, a second lens adjacent the output end of the bundle, and a CCD camera. The camera transmits video data to the monitor to produce an illuminated fiber optic image. The coordinates for the center of each fiber is found through an imaging process and the output fibers coordinates are related to the input fiber coordinates and processed in the computer to produce a mapping lookup-table (LUT) unique to the specific fiber bundle. Remapping of the LUT due to changes in the lens focus, CCD camera, or the addition of an infrared filter is accomplished by a software utility in the computer.

Roberts, Hilary E.↗

NASA Tech Briefs, March 2014

Topics include: Data Fusion for Global Estimation of Forest Characteristics From Sparse Lidar Data; Debris and Ice Mapping Analysis Tool - Database; Data Acquisition and Processing Software - DAPS; Metal-Assisted Fabrication of Biodegradable Porous Silicon Nanostructures; Post-Growth, In Situ Adhesion of Carbon Nanotubes to a Substrate for Robust CNT Cathodes; Integrated PEMFC Flow Field Design for Gravity-Independent Passive Water Removal; Thermal Mechanical Preparation of Glass Spheres; Mechanistic-Based Multiaxial-Stochastic-Strength Model for Transversely-Isotropic Brittle Materials; Methods for Mitigating Space Radiation Effects, Fault Detection and Correction, and Processing Sensor Data; Compact Ka-Band Antenna Feed with Double Circularly Polarized Capability; Dual-Leadframe Transient Liquid Phase Bonded Power Semiconductor Module Assembly and Bonding Process; Quad First Stage Processor: A Four-Channel Digitizer and Digital Beam-Forming Processor; Protective Sleeve for a Pyrotechnic Reefing Line Cutter; Metabolic Heat Regenerated Temperature Swing Adsorption; CubeSat Deployable Log Periodic Dipole Array; Re-entry Vehicle Shape for Enhanced Performance; NanoRacks-Scale MEMS Gas Chromatograph System; Variable Camber Aerodynamic Control Surfaces and Active Wing Shaping Control; Spacecraft Line-of-Sight Stabilization Using LWIR Earth Signature; Technique for Finding Retro-Reflectors in Flash LIDAR Imagery; Novel Hemispherical Dynamic Camera for EVAs; 360 deg Visual Detection and Object Tracking on an Autonomous Surface Vehicle; Simulation of Charge Carrier Mobility in Conducting Polymers; Observational Data Formatter Using CMOR for CMIP5; Propellant Loading Physics Model for Fault Detection Isolation and Recovery; Probabilistic Guidance for Swarms of Autonomous Agents; Reducing Drift in Stereo Visual Odometry; Future Air-Traffic Management Concepts Evaluation Tool; Examination and A Priori Analysis of a Direct Numerical Simulation Database for High-Pressure Turbulent Flows; and Resource-Constrained Application of Support Vector Machines to Imagery.

Source record↗

A New Discrete Wavelength BUV Algorithm for Consistent Volcanic SO2 Retrievals from Multiple Satellite Missions

This paper describes a new discrete wavelength algorithm developed for retrieving volcanic sulfur dioxide (SO2) vertical column density (VCD) from UV observing satellites. The Multi-Satellite SO2 algorithm (MS_SO2) simultaneously retrieves column densities of sulfur dioxide, ozone, and Lambertian effective reflectivity (LER) and its spectral dependence. It is used operationally to process measurements from the heritage Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer (TOMS) onboard NASA's Nimbus-7 satellite (N7/TOMS: 1978-1993) and from the current Earth Polychromatic Imaging Camera (EPIC) onboard Deep Space Climate Observatory (DSCOVR: 2015-) from the Earth-Sun Lagrange (L1) orbit. Results from MS_SO2 algorithm for several volcanic cases were assessed using the more sensitive principal component analysis (PCA) algorithm. The PCA is an operational algorithm used by NASA to retrieve SO2 from hyperspectral UV spectrometers, such as the Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI) onboard NASA's Earth Observing System Aura satellite and Ozone Mapping and Profiling Suite (OMPS) onboard NASA-NOAA Suomi National Polar Partnership (SNPP) satellite. For this comparative study, the PCA algorithm was modified to use the discrete wavelengths of the Nimbus-7/TOMS instrument, described in Sect. S1 of the Supplement. Our results demonstrate good agreement between the two retrievals for the largest volcanic eruptions of the satellite era, such as the 1991 Pinatubo eruption. To estimate SO2 retrieval systematic uncertainties, we use radiative transfer simulations explicitly accounting for volcanic sulfate and ash aerosols. Our results suggest that the discrete-wavelength MS_SO2 algorithm, although less sensitive than hyperspectral PCA algorithm, can be adapted to retrieve volcanic SO2 VCDs from contemporary hyperspectral UV instruments, such as OMI and OMPS, to create consistent, multi-satellite, long-term volcanic SO2 climate data records.

Bradford L Fisher↗

Hilo Bay Water Resources: Monitoring Water Quality in Hilo Bay, Hawaii to Support Future Community Planning

Designated as an impaired body of water by both state and federal water quality standards, Hilo Bay, Hawaiʻi is highly susceptible to brown water, a condition where the water becomes murky and is associated with excess levels of bacteria, contaminants, and nutrients. A breakwater in Hilo Bay, which was established to protect Hilo town from tsunamis, interferes with water circulation and prolongs the presence of brown water in the bay. The State of Hawaiʻi issues brown water advisories (BWAs) following flash flood warnings, sewage spills, and other events to indicate a public health concern for those who use Hilo Bay for recreation, cultural purposes, and fishing. Due to the elevated public health risk and ecosystem disturbance that brown water poses to Hilo Bay, we partnered with the Hawaiʻi County Office of Sustainability, Climate, Equity, and Resilience (OSCER) to examine the feasibility of using Earth observations (EO) to monitor water quality in the Hilo Bay region. We leveraged data from Sentinel-2 Multispectral Instrument (MSI), Landsat 8 Operational Land Imager (OLI), Landsat 9 OLI-2, and Aqua and Terra Moderate Resolution Imagine Spectroradiometer (MODIS) instruments to identify and assess spatial and temporal patterns of two main water quality parameters, turbidity and chlorophyll-a, during BWAs. We used the Optical Reef and Coastal Area Assessment (ORCAA) tool in Google Earth Engine to process EO data and generate water quality maps and time series. Our study found that increased turbidity levels can be identified by EO data during BWAs. In addition, our map products indicated the presence of several turbidity plumes along the coast, with the highest concentration of turbidity found within Hilo Bay. While chlorophyll-a levels were relatively flat within our study region during BWAs, we found that regional chlorophyll-a patterns could be derived from MODIS chlorophyll-a data in NASA Worldview. Our study’s multi-sensor approach provided valuable insights for how water quality in the Hilo Bay region can be monitored in the future.

remote sensing↗

Method and apparatus for fast context cloning in a data processing system

A data processing system includes a memory system, a first processing element, a first address translator that maps virtual addresses to system addresses, a second address translator that maps system address to physical addresses, and a task management unit. A first program task uses a first virtual memory space that is mapped to a first system address range using a first table. The context of the first program task includes an address of the first table and is cloned by creating a second table indicative of a mapping from a second virtual address space to a second range of system addresses, where the second range is mapped to the same physical addresses as the first range until a write occurs, at which time memory is allocated and the mapping of the second range is updated. The cloned context includes an address of the second table.

Beard, Jonathan Curtis↗

Using Meteorological Data to Evaluate Worldwide PV Degradation Rates

Here we automate the process to enable the creation of world maps for specific PV durability metrics. The end goal is to create a tool for the creation of world maps predicting the sensitivity of modules to degradation to inform the development and utilization of module testing standards and to provide information to module designers. TMY (Typical Meteorological Year) Data was aggregated from sites around the world to render insight into factors contributing to the degradation of solar modules. The focus of aggregating data was to create a single dataset to work with utilizing Solar Irradiance values combined with Ambient Temperature, Relative Humidity, Wind Speed and Dew-Point Temperature.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗

Automation of Vulnerability and Patch Management: Information Extraction, Association, and Optimization

Vulnerability and patch management is an integral part of a robust cybersecurity program, yet it grows increasingly complex due to the sheer amount of data that must be analyzed. Particularly in Operational Technology (OT) environments, analysis must be done manually because of the lack of automated solutions. Additionally, there are many steps in this process, from the initial discovery of the vulnerability to the implementation of its remediation, and each step in the process requires different data in order to be performed effectively. In this work, we provide approaches and strategies to assist operators in industrial or OT environments throughout the vulnerability management cycle. Security advisories provide key information about mitigation strategies, or actions that can be taken when a patch is unavailable or cannot be installed. Details of these strategies are not shared in public vulnerability databases and must be found manually. We approach this problem by designing a solution to automatically identify that information within vendor security advisories and retrieve it for operator use. We start with an approach that requires domain-specific knowledge of certain frequently-seen reference websites. Next, an approach that can work on an arbitrary website but relies on certain keywords. Finally, an approach that uses Natural Language Processing (NLP) methods and does not require specific knowledge or keywords. Each of these approaches is more general than its predecessor; we demonstrate high accuracy for all approaches Advisories also often contain details of affected products in non-standard or natural language formats. While this information can be easily understood when read by an operator, the non-standard format acts as a barrier to effective automation. We provide an approach for the first step in this process: identifying vendors in security advisories and mapping them to a standard framework for representing digital assets and software products. We evaluate five established string similarity algorithms, plus one of our own design that combines string similarity and information theory, on the task of mapping vendors to their corresponding entries in the Common Platform Enumeration (CPE) repository. Our results show that our proposed metric outperforms all others. Due to the constraints on time, finances, and personnel for organizations, Large Language Models (LLMs) may seem like attractive opportunities for security operators to speed up information gathering; however, it is still not clear whether LLMs can handle vulnerability management tasks well. To answer this question, we perform an empirical study of LLMs’ ability to provide consistent, accurate information about vulnerabilities in order to guide organizations in their adoption of LLMs. We observe poor performance for all models tested, suggesting that these models are not well-suited to the consistent retrieval of accurate vulnerability information. Finally, once vulnerabilities have been identified and any additional information has been obtained, operators must decide which remediation actions to implement based on their available resources. This already-complex problem becomes even more so when we consider that a vulnerability may have multiple avenues for remediation. We formulate this scenario as two knapsack problems and provide solutions, which we then compare against several existing strategies for vulnerability prioritization seen in real operational environments.

McClanahan, Kylie↗

Automated Derivation of Complex System Constraints from User Requirements

The Payload Operations Integration Center (POIC) located at the Marshall Space Flight Center has the responsibility of integrating US payload science requirements for the International Space Station (ISS). All payload operations must request ISS system resources so that the resource usage will be included in the ISS on-board execution timelines. The scheduling of resources and building of the timeline is performed using the Consolidated Planning System (CPS). The ISS resources are quite complex due to the large number of components that must be accounted for. The planners at the POIC simplify the process for Payload Developers (PD) by providing the PDs with a application that has the basic functionality PDs need as well as list of simplified resources in the User Requirements Collection (URC) application. The planners maintained a mapping of the URC resources to the CPS resources. The process of manually converting PD's science requirements from a simplified representation to a more complex CPS representation is a time-consuming and tedious process. The goal is to provide a software solution to allow the planners to build a mapping of the complex CPS constraints to the basic URC constraints and automatically convert the PD's requirements into systems requirements during export to CPS.

Foshee, Mark↗

Development of data processing, interpretation and analysis system for the remote sensing of trace atmospheric gas species

The major emphasis is on the advancement of remote sensing technology. In particular, the gas filter correlation radiometer (GFCR) technique was applied to the measurement of trace gas species, such as carbon monoxide (CO), from airborne and Earth orbiting platforms. Through a series of low altitude aircraft flights, high altitude aircraft flights, and orbiting space platform flights, data were collected and analyzed, culminating in the first global map of carbon monoxide concentration in the middle troposphere and stratosphere. The four major areas of this remote sensing program, known as the Measurement of Air Pollution from Satellites (MAPS) experiment, are: (1) data acquisition, (2) data processing, analysis, and interpretation algorithms, (3) data display techniques, and (4) information processing.

Casas, Joseph C.↗

Policy implications in developing a land use management information systems

The current land use map for the city of Los Angeles was developed by the guesstimation process and provides single stage information for each level in the critical geographical hierarchy for land use planning management. Processing and incorporation of LANDSAT data in the land use information system requires special funding; however, computergraphic maps are able to provide a viable information system for city planning and management.

Landini, A. J.↗

Metrology: Measurement Assurance Program Guidelines

The 5300.4 series of NASA Handbooks for Reliability and Quality Assurance Programs have provisions for the establishment and utilization of a documented metrology system to control measurement processes and to provide objective evidence of quality conformance. The intent of these provisions is to assure consistency and conformance to specifications and tolerances of equipment, systems, materials, and processes procured and/or used by NASA, its international partners, contractors, subcontractors, and suppliers. This Measurement Assurance Program (MAP) guideline has the specific objectives to: (1) ensure the quality of measurements made within NASA programs; (2) establish realistic measurement process uncertainties; (3) maintain continuous control over the measurement processes; and (4) ensure measurement compatibility among NASA facilities. The publication addresses MAP methods as applied within and among NASA installations and serves as a guide to: control measurement processes at the local level (one facility); conduct measurement assurance programs in which a number of field installations are joint participants; and conduct measurement integrity (round robin) experiments in which a number of field installations participate to assess the overall quality of particular measurement processes at a point in time.

Eicke, W. G.↗