Search NASA⌕ Search

SEARCH · Search NASA

Results for “Image resolution”

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.

Quote a phrase for an exact phrase match. Source license links do not imply unrestricted reuse.

At least 109 records · Page 6

High resolution images of Venus from ground-based radar

The Goldstone Deep Space Station ground-based synthetic aperture radar system has been used to obtain radar images of Venus with resolutions of close to 1.3 km. Observations were made at 12.5 cm wavelength using circular polarization. From 12 days of observations during the 1986 inferior conjunction, three images have been selected for initial processing. The images show remarkable surface features including craters, ridges, and regions of high Fresnel reflectivity in the plains region.

Jurgens, R. F.↗

High-resolution imaging studies of the near-nucleus regions of comets

High-resolution, calibrated images of the near-nucleus regions of Halley, Giacobini-Zinner (for ICE encounter) and additional comets displaying widely differing levels of activity were acquired with a CCD sensor at the Cassegrain focus of the 3.6 m Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope (CFHT). The International Halley Watch designated interference filters were used. Successful correlation of ICE magnetic field data with the optical images obtained with the CFHT on the night of encounter (11 Sept. 1985) primarily through the H2O(+) and neighboring continuum passbands and with 300 km spatial resolution provokes reinterpretation of the observed structure of cometary ion tails. The observations of Halley, limited by bad weather, were made at significant periods of the apparition: the first, in December 1984 with the comet at 5.3 AU during the period of the onset of activity; and the last, in November 1985 with the comet near opposition. The December observations show evidence of residual activity. The 18 November data show a highly-condensed inner coma with an extreme falloff in brightness from the region of the nucleus. These data provide the basis for characterizing the gas and dust environment in the immediate vicinity of the active nucleus.

Goldberg, B. A.↗

Silicon solid/state linear arrays for multispectral high resolution imaging systems

Solid-state, electronically scanned, linear detector arrays are now available which can be used in a pushbroom scan mode imaging system for high-resolution multispectral earth resource survey applications. These arrays provide high performance in the visible to near-IR region. Two performance criteria must be assessed in the choice of a detector array: signal-to-noise ratio and spectral response. Consideration of diffraction limitations shows that optics size cannot be significantly reduced by using very low-noise detectors. The required spectral response for a viable detector array should not have spectral ripples that cause a low-level, but significant, error in the detected effective reflectance of the target.

Thompson, L. L.↗

High-resolution imaging of QSO 2305 + 187 (= 4C 18.68)

Optical imaging of QSO 2305 + 187 with resolution ranging from 0.1 to 1.0 arcsec in continuum and line emission is presented. The data are from FOCAM and the HR Cam of the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope, and the Wide Field Camera of the Hubble Space Telescope. These are compared with previously published optical and radio images. The QSO host galaxy has the basic properties of an elliptical, but has significant irregularities, and tidal tails which indicate an ongoing gravitational interaction with a close companion.

Hutchings, J. B.↗

Preliminary system concepts for MODIS - A moderate resolution imaging spectrometer for EOS

Plans are underway at NASA Goddard to develop a moderate-resolution (0.5-1.0-km) imaging spectrometer with 104 spectral bands in the range from 0.4 to 14.2 microns for use as a NASA facility aboard the Space Station Earth Observation System. Science requirements call for the system to image the earth's surface every 2 d for a period of 10 yr, using two electrooptic sensors. MODIS-T (tilt) has 64 10-nm-wide channels in the 400-1000-nm range. The system has 5-cm-diameter optics, scans + or - 45 deg, and can be pointed + or - 60 deg along track. Calculated S/N is in excess of 800:1 near 400 nm. MODIS-N (nadir) scans + or - 45 deg about nadir with 12 500-m- and 28 1000-m-resolution channels, including two polarization channels and 14 thermal-IR channels. With 20-cm-diameter optics the calculated S/N of the majority of the reflected solar bands is over 1000:1. NETD values for the thermal bands are on the order of 0.1-0.2 K at 300 K. Combined MODIS-T and MODIS-N data rates are 8.3 Mb/s in daylight and 1.5 Mb/s at night, resulting in a total of 360 Gb/d.

Barnes, W. L.↗

Interpreting forest and grassland biome productivity utilizing nested scales of image resolution and biogeographical analysis

Data acquisition, initial site characterization, image and geographic information methods available, and brief evaluations of first-year for NASA's Thematic Mapper (TM) working group are presented. The TM and other spectral data are examined in order to relate local, intensive ecosystem research findings to estimates of carbon cycling rates over wide geographic regions. The effort is to span environments ranging from dry to moist climates and from good to poor site quality using the TM capability, with and without the inclusion of geographic information system (GIS) data, and thus to interpret the local spatial pattern of factors conditioning biomass or productivity. Twenty-eight TM data sets were acquired, archived, and evaluated. The ERDAS image processing and GIS system were installed on the microcomputer (PC-AT) and its capabilities are being investigated. The TM coverage of seven study areas were exported via ELAS software on the Prime to the ERDAS system. Statistical analysis procedures to be used on the spectral data are being identified.

Iverson, L. R.↗

High-resolution imaging gamma-ray spectroscopy with externally segmented germanium detectors

Externally segmented germanium detectors promise a breakthrough in gamma-ray imaging capabilities while retaining the superb energy resolution of germanium spectrometers. An angular resolution of 0.2 deg becomes practical by combining position-sensitive germanium detectors having a segment thickness of a few millimeters with a one-dimensional coded aperture located about a meter from the detectors. Correspondingly higher angular resolutions are possible with larger separations between the detectors and the coded aperture. Two-dimensional images can be obtained by rotating the instrument. Although the basic concept is similar to optical or X-ray coded-aperture imaging techniques, several complicating effects arise because of the penetrating nature of gamma rays. The complications include partial transmission through the coded aperture elements, Compton scattering in the germanium detectors, and high background count rates. Extensive electron-photon Monte Carlo modeling of a realistic detector/coded-aperture/collimator system has been performed. Results show that these complicating effects can be characterized and accounted for with no significant loss in instrument sensitivity.

Callas, J. L.↗

Optimizing inference of segmentation on high-resolution images in MLExchange

MLExchange is a machine learning (ML) operations platform providing web user-interfaces (UIs) for data visualization and analysis pipelines at synchrotron facilities. Among these UIs is the segmentation app which helps synchrotron users utilize ML algorithms to automatically segment high-resolution scientific images with minimal manual annotation effort. In this work, we share code optimizations that significantly speed up the segmentation inference workflow of large data in short time. By optimizing the sequence of CPU-GPU data transfers and introducing CPU parallelization to key operations, we improve the per-device, per-image frame computational efficiency and observe close to 3×$$\times$$ speedup over the original segmentation inference workflow run time when utilizing a single GPU. Further adaptations enabling multi-GPU inference yield more than 40×$$\times$$ speedup with 100 GPUs compared to the optimized single GPU inference workflow. This acceleration of the segmentation inference workflow will provide MLExchange users with easy access to segmentation results with little wait time.

Lu, Shizhao↗

Electron-optic limitations on image resolution

Various approaches are considered to the solution of the electron-optical problem of designing an image tube configuration. Emphasis is placed on the method of computer design, and an illustration is given in which the technique is used in the design of an 80-mm image tube with a zoom capability of 3:1. The solutions are discussed to such problems as image distortion, magnification, and electron bundles striking the zoom electrode. Three types of an electron-optical configuration are examined for the electron-optic limitations to resolution: (1) the proximity image tube, (2) the magnetic-type image tube having uniform electric and magnetic fields, and (3) the electrostatic-type image tube such as the 80-mm zoom tube.

Engstrom, R. W.↗

High-resolution imaging of globular cluster cores

An approach based on the maximum entropy method aimed at increasing angular resolution to study globular cluster cores is presented. To perform the image restoration the Gull-Skilling (1989) MEMSYS-3 code for maximum entropy reconstruction of arbitrary data sets was used. This software was recently applied to restoration of ESO images of the R136 object in the core of the 30 Doradus nebula. It was demonstrated that the software made it possible to restore an image at subpixel spatial scales which facilitates the detection of very high-resolution structure in the restored image.

Weir, N.↗

High resolution images of P/Tempel 1 and P/Tempel 2 constructed from IRAS survey data

Infrared images of P/Tempel 1 and P/Tempel 2 were constructed from IRAS survey data using a computer algorithm based on the Maximum Correlation Method for Image Construction (Aumann et al, 1990). The resulting images are of sufficiently high quality and resolution to delineate coma and tail morphology, and permit accurate photometry of the total dust complex. Comparisons of the infrared colors and photometric profiles of Tempel 1 and Tempel 2 at similar heliocentric distances show that the grains produced by the two comets are quite similar in radiometric and dynamic properties. Tempel 1 is found to produce about 30 percent more dust in its coma and tail than Tempel 2. The comae of Tempel 1 and Tempel 2 are expanding with mean velocities of 5.8 plus or minus 0.07 and 6.1 plus or minus 0.17 m/sec respectively, indicative of the ejection of large grains. The IRAS cataloged infrared fluxes (Walker, 1986) are found to be underestimated by as much as a factor of three for the comets. Therefore, it is essential to create images of the comets to obtain meaningful IRAS photometry.

Walker, Russell G.↗

MRO High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE): Instrument Development

The primary functional requirement of the HiRISE imager is to allow identification of both predicted and unknown features on the surface of Mars to a much finer resolution and contrast than previously possible. This results in a camera with a very wide swath width, 6km at 300km altitude, and a high signal to noise ratio, >100:1. Generation of terrain maps, 30 cm vertical resolution, from stereo images requires very accurate geometric calibration. The project limitations of mass, cost and schedule make the development challenging. In addition, the spacecraft stability must not be a major limitation to image quality. The nominal orbit for the science phase of the mission is a 3pm orbit of 255 by 320 km with periapsis locked to the south pole. The track velocity is approximately 3,400 m/s.

Alan Delamere↗

Near-IR High-Resolution Imaging Polarimetry of the SU Aur Disk: Clues for Tidal Tails?

We present new high-resolution (approximately 0.09) H-band imaging observations of the circumstellar disk around the T Tauri star SU Aur. Our observations with Subaru-HiCIAO have revealed the presence of scattered light as close as 0.15 (approximately 20 AU) to the star. Within our image, we identify bright emission associated with a disk with a minimum radius of approximately 90 AU, an inclination of approximately 35 deg from the plane of the sky, and an approximate PA of 15 deg for the major axis. We find a brightness asymmetry between the northern and southern sides of the disk due to a non-axisymmetric disk structure. We also identify a pair of asymmetric tail structures extending east and west from the disk. The western tail extends at least 2. 5 (350 AU) from the star, and is probably associated with a reflection nebula previously observed at optical and near-IR wavelengths. The eastern tail extends at least 1 (140 AU) at the present signal-to-noise. These tails are likely due to an encounter with an unseen brown dwarf, but our results do not exclude the explanation that these tails are outflow cavities or jets.

protoplanetary disks↗

X-ray optics - A technique for high resolution imaging

Both scattering and figure errors in grazing incidence optics are larger in the plane of incidence than out-of-plane by a factor equal to 1/sin theta, where theta is the graze angle. When the full annular aperture of a grazing incidence telescope is stopped down, the point spread function becomes highly elliptical with a width as much as sin theta times narrower than the full image. In practice, this means that improvements in resolution of up to 100 times can be achieved, and effective resolution can approach the diffraction limit. Laboratory data demonstrating the effect are presented.

Cash, Webster↗

Optical system design alternatives for the Moderate-Resolution Imaging Spectrometer-Tilt (MODIS-T) for the Earth Observing System (EOS)

The MODIS consists of two synergistic sensors with a total of 104 spectral bands in the 0.4-14.2-micron range. MODIS-T (Tilt) is one of these sensors. It is a 64-channel imaging spectrometer with a required 10 nm spectral resolution (FWHM) in the 400 to 1040 nm spectral range. The system will have a 1 km IFOV, a wide scan for global coverage in three days, and be capable of being pointed fore and aft of nadir by + or - 50 degrees.

Maymon, Peter W.↗

Two-photon interferometry for high-resolution imaging

We discuss advantages of using non-classical states of light for two aspects of optical imaging: creating of miniature images on photosensitive substrates, which constitutes the foundation for optical lithography, and conversely, imaging of micro objects. In both cases, the classical resolution limit given by the Rayleigh criterion is approximately a half of the optical wavelength. It has been shown, however, that by using multi-photon quantum states of the light field, and multi-photon sensitive material or detector, this limit can be surpassed. In the present work, we give a rigorous quantum mechanical treatment of this problem, address some particularly widespread misconceptions and discuss the requirements arising on the way of turning the research on quantum imaging into a practical technology.

quantum technology↗