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NASA NTRS1998

Airborne/Space-Based Doppler Lidar Wind Sounders Sampling the PBL and Other Regions of Significant Beta and U Inhomogeneities

This final report covers the period from April 1994 through March 1998. The proposed research was organized under four main tasks. Those tasks were: (1) Investigate the vertical and horizontal velocity structures within and adjacent to thin and subvisual cirrus; (2) Investigate the lowest 1 km of the PBL and develop algorithms for processing pulsed Doppler lidar data obtained from single shots into regions of significant inhomogeneities in Beta and U; (3) Participate in OSSEs including those designed to establish shot density requirements for meso-gamma scale phenomena with quasi-persistent locations (e.g., jets, leewaves, tropical storms); and (4) Participate in the planning and execution of an airborne mission to measure winds with a pulsed CO2 Doppler lidar. Over the four year period of this research contract, work on all four tasks has yielded significant results which have led to 38 professional presentations (conferences and publications) and have been folded into the science justification for an approved NASA space mission, SPARCLE (SPAce Readiness Coherent Lidar Experiment), in 2001. Also this research has, through Task 4, led to a funded proposal to work directly on a NASA field campaign, CAMEX III, in which an airborne Doppler wind lidar will be used to investigate the cloud-free circulations near tropical storms. Monthly progress reports required under this contract are on file. This final report will highlight major accomplishments, including some that were not foreseen in the original proposal. The presentation of this final report includes this written document as well as material that is better presented via the internet (web pages). There is heavy reference to appended papers and documents. Thus, the main body of the report will serve to summarize the key efforts and findings.

Emmitt, Dave↗
NASA NTRS1989

The Father Christmas worm

Given here is an overview analysis of the Father Christmas Worm, a computer worm that was released onto the DECnet Internet three days before Christmas 1988. The purpose behind the worm was to send an electronic mail message to all users on the computer system running the worm. The message was a Christmas greeting and was signed 'Father Christmas'. From the investigation, it was determined that the worm was released from a computer (node number 20597::) at a university in Switzerland. The worm was designed to travel quickly. Estimates are that it was copied to over 6,000 computer nodes. However, it was believed to have executed on only a fraction of those computers. Within ten minutes after it was released, the worm was detected at the Space Physics Analysis Network (SPAN), NASA's largest space and Earth science network. Once the source program was captured, a procedural cure, using the existing functionality of the computer operating systems, was quickly devised and distributed. A combination of existing computer security measures, the quick and accurate procedures devised to stop copies of the worm from executing, and the network itself, were used to rapidly provide the cure. These were the main reasons why the worm executed on such a small percentage of nodes. This overview of the analysis of the events concerning the worm is based on an investigation made by the SPAN Security Team and provides some insight into future security measures that will be taken to handle computer worms and viruses that may hit similar networks.

Green, James L.↗
NASA NTRS1995

Quick Look Report of Acceleration Measurements on Mir Space Station During Mir-16

The NASA Microgravity Science and Applications Division (MSAD) sponsors the Space Acceleration Measurement System (SAMS) to support microgravity science experiments with microgravity acceleration measurements. In the past, SAMS was flown exclusively on the NASA Orbiters. MSAD is currently sponsoring science experiments participating in the Shuttle-Mir Science Program in cooperation with the Russians on the Mir space station. Included in the complement of MSAD experiments and equipment is a SAMS unit installed on the Mir space station. On 25 August 1994, the SAMS unit was launched on a Russia Progress vehicle to the Mir space station. The SAMS unit will support science experiments from the U.S. and Russia in a manner similar to the Orbiter missions by measuring the microgravity environments during the experiment operations. In October 1994, the SAMS unit recorded data on Mir for over fifty-three hours in seven different time periods to survey possible locations for future experiments. This report presents a quick look at the data and the microgravity environment during the time periods in which SAMS data were acquired. The Mir acceleration data were examined to ascertain gross attributes of the data. This report does not present an exhaustive examination of all possible activities due to the short time available to prepare this quick look report and due to the absence of complete timeline information during the SAMS recording time periods. Appendices A, B and C provide plots of the SAMS data for an overview of the microgravity environment at the times that data were recorded. Appendix D describes the procedures to access SAMS data by file transfer protocol (ftp) utilizing the internet. Appendix E contains a user comment sheet.

Delombard, Richard↗
NASA NTRS2005

Jet Propulsion Laboratory: Annual Report 2004

Once or twice in an age, a year comes along that the historians proclaim as an Annus Mirabilis - a year of wonders. For the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, 2004 was just that sort of time. From beginning to end, it was a nonstop experience of wondrous events in space. Imagine that two robot rovers embark on cross-country rambles across Mars, scrutinizing rocks for signs of past water on the now-arid world. A flagship spacecraft brakes into orbit at Saturn to begin longterm surveillance of the ringed world, preparing to drop a sophisticated probe to the surface of its haze-shrouded largest moon. Another craft makes the closest-ever pass by the nucleus of a comet, collecting sample particles as it goes. Two new space telescopes peer into the depths of the universe far beyond our solar system, viewing stars, nebulas and galaxies in invisible light beyond the spectrum our eyes can see. A pair of instruments is lofted on a NASA Earth-orbiting satellite to monitor air quality and the protective layer of ozone blanketing our home planet. A small probe brings samples of the solar wind to Earth for in-depth study. While JPL was absorbed with all of these ventures on other worlds, NASA and the White House unveiled an ambitious new plan of space exploration. The Vision for Space Exploration announced in January foresees a program of robotic and astronaut missions leading to a human return to the Moon by 2020, and eventual crewed expeditions to Mars. The vision also calls for more robotic missions to the moons of the outer planets; spaceborne observatories that will search for Earth-like planets around other stars and explore the formation and evolution of the universe; and continued study of our home planet. In order to accomplish all of this, NASA must perfect many as-yet-uninvented technologies and space transportation capabilities. JPL has a great deal to bring to this vision. Robotic exploration of Mars will lead the way for missions that will carry women and men to the red planet. Our engineers and scientists are formulating spacecraft that could use nuclear power to enable exploration missions of the future. And even now we are designing formations of space telescopes that will capture family portraits of the planets around neighboring stars. Those are only some of the ways that the Laboratory is contributing to NASA's broader goals. During 2004, JPL made a distinctive contribution to agencywide initiatives in areas such as safety, NASA transformation, the agency's Internet portal and NASA's Explorer Schools programs. Years like 2004 pose a special challenge for us. It would be easy to say that this was a once-in-a-decade high point of mission activities, but I believe that this would miss an opportunity. We are fortunate to have many space projects in the works that have the promise of being just as exhilarating as the great mission successes that we celebrated this year. The challenge and opportunity for us now is to make every year like this one.

National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NAS↗
NASA NTRS1996

Fast 3D Net Expeditions: Tools for Effective Scientific Collaboration on the World Wide Web

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.

Watson, Val↗
NASA NTRS2008

Earth Science Mining Web Services

To allow scientists further capabilities in the area of data mining and web services, the Goddard Earth Sciences Data and Information Services Center (GES DISC) and researchers at the University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH) have developed a system to mine data at the source without the need of network transfers. The system has been constructed by linking together several pre-existing technologies: the Simple Scalable Script-based Science Processor for Measurements (S4PM), a processing engine at he GES DISC; the Algorithm Development and Mining (ADaM) system, a data mining toolkit from UAH that can be configured in a variety of ways to create customized mining processes; ActiveBPEL, a workflow execution engine based on BPEL (Business Process Execution Language); XBaya, a graphical workflow composer; and the EOS Clearinghouse (ECHO). XBaya is used to construct an analysis workflow at UAH using ADam components, which are also installed remotely at the GES DISC, wrapped as Web Services. The S4PM processing engine searches ECHO for data using space-time criteria, staging them to cache, allowing the ActiveBPEL engine to remotely orchestras the processing workflow within S4PM. As mining is completed, the output is placed in an FTP holding area for the end user. The goals are to give users control over the data they want to process, while mining data at the data source using the server's resources rather than transferring the full volume over the internet. These diverse technologies have been infused into a functioning, distributed system with only minor changes to the underlying technologies. The key to the infusion is the loosely coupled, Web-Services based architecture: All of the participating components are accessible (one way or another) through (Simple Object Access Protocol) SOAP-based Web Services.

Pham, Long↗
NASA NTRS2001

A Space Based Internet Protocol System for Sub-Orbital Tracking and Control

Personnel from the Goddard Space Flight Center Wallops Flight Facility (GSFC/WFF) in Virginia are responsible for the overall management of the NASA Sounding Rocket Program. Payloads are generally in support of NASA's Space Science Enterprise's missions and return a variety of scientific data as well as providing a reasonably economical means of conducting engineering tests for instruments and devices used on satellites and other spacecraft. The fifteen types of sounding rockets used by NASA can carry payloads of various weights to altitudes from 50 km to more than 1,300 km. Launch activities are conducted not only from established missile ranges, but also from remote locations worldwide requiring mobile tracking and command equipment to be transported and set up at considerable expense. The advent of low earth orbit (LEO) commercial communications satellites provides an opportunity to dramatically reduce tracking and control costs of launch vehicles and Unpiloted Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) by reducing or eliminating this ground infrastructure. Additionally, since data transmission is by packetized Internet Protocol (IP), data can be received and commands initiated from practically any location. A low cost Commercial Off The Shelf (COTS) system is currently under development for sounding rockets which also has application to UAVs and scientific balloons. Due to relatively low data rate (9600 baud) currently available, the system will first be used to provide GPS data for tracking and vehicle recovery. Range safety requirements for launch vehicles usually stipulate at least two independent tracking sources. Most sounding rockets flown by NASA now carry GPS receivers that output position data via the payload telemetry system to the ground station. The Flight Modem can be configured as a completely separate link thereby eliminating requirement for tracking radar. The system architecture which integrates antennas, GPS receiver, commercial satellite packet data modem, and a single board computer with custom software is described along with the technical challenges and the plan for their resolution. These include antenna development, high Doppler rates, reliability, environmental ruggedness, hand over between satellites and data security. An aggressive test plan is included which in addition to environmental testing measures bit error rate, latency and antenna patterns. Actual flight tests are planned for the near future on aircraft, long duration balloons and sounding rockets and these results as well as the current status of the project are reported.

Bull, Barton↗
NASA NTRS2001

A Space Based Internet Protocol System for Launch Vehicle Tracking and Control

Personnel from the Goddard Space Flight Center Wallops Flight Facility (GSFC/WFF) in Virginia are responsible for the overall management of the NASA Sounding Rocket and Scientific Balloon Programs. Payloads are generally in support of NASA's Space Science Enterprise's missions and return a variety of scientific data as well as providing a reasonably economical means of conducting engineering tests for instruments and devices used on satellites and other spacecraft. Sounding rockets used by NASA can carry payloads of various weights to altitudes from 50 km to more than 1,300 km. Scientific balloons can carry a payload weighing as much as 3,630 Kg to an altitude of 42 km. Launch activities for both are conducted not only from established ranges, but also from remote locations worldwide requiring mobile tracking and command equipment to be transported and set up at considerable expense. The advent of low earth orbit (LEO) commercial communications satellites provides an opportunity to dramatically reduce tracking and control costs of these launch vehicles and Unpiloted Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) by reducing or eliminating this ground infrastructure. Additionally, since data transmission is by packetized Internet Protocol (IP), data can be received and commands initiated from practically any location. A low cost Commercial Off The Shelf (COTS) system is currently under development for sounding rockets that also has application to UAVs and scientific balloons. Due to relatively low data rate (9600 baud) currently available, the system will first be used to provide GPS data for tracking and vehicle recovery. Range safety requirements for launch vehicles usually stipulate at least two independent tracking sources. Most sounding rockets flown by NASA now carry GP~ receivers that output position data via the payload telemetry system to the ground station. The Flight Modem can be configured as a completely separate link thereby eliminating the requirement for tracking radar. The system architecture that integrates antennas, GPS receiver, commercial satellite packet data modem, and a single board computer with custom software is described along with the technical challenges and the plan for their resolution. These include antenna development, high Doppler rates, reliability, environmental ruggedness, hand over between satellites, and data security. An aggressive test plan is included which, in addition to environmental testing, measures bit error rate, latency and antenna patterns. Actual launches on a sounding rocket and various aircraft flights have taken place. Flight tests are planned for the near future on aircraft, long duration balloons and sounding rockets. These results, as well as the current status of the project, are reported.

Bull, Barton↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Earth System Digital Twins (ESDT) Technology for NASA Earth Science

For NASA's Advanced Information Systems Technology (AIST) Program, an Earth System Digital Twin (ESDT) is defined as an interactive and integrated multidomain, multiscale, digital replica of the state and temporal evolution of Earth systems. It dynamically integrates: relevant Earth system models and simulations; other relevant models (e.g., related to the world's infrastructure); continuous and timely (including near real time and direct readout) observations (e.g., space, air, ground, over/underwater, Internet of Things (IoT), socioeconomic); long-time records; as well as analytics and artificial intelligence tools. Effective ESDTs enable users to run hypothetical scenarios to improve the understanding, prediction of and mitigation/response to Earth system processes, natural phenomena and human activities as well as their many interactions. An ESDT is a type of integrated information system that, for example, enables continuous assessment of impact from naturally occurring and/or human activities on physical and natural environments. AIST ESDT strategic goals are to: 1. Develop information system frameworks to provide continuous and accurate representations of systems as they change over time; 2. Mirror various Earth Science systems and utilize the combination of Data Analytics, Artificial Intelligence, Digital Thread, and state-of-the-art models to help predict the Earth’s response to various phenomena; 3. Provide the tools to conduct "what if" investigations that can result in actionable predictions. The AIST ESDT thrust is developing capabilities toward the development of future digital twins of the Earth or of subcomponents of the Earth. This will enable the development of an overarching framework that will integrate New Observing Strategies (NOS) to enable new observation measurements, i.e., multi-source, coordinated, dynamic and responsive to needs and requests defined by Analytic Collaborative Frameworks (ACF) that enable agile science investigations fusing and analyzing very large amounts of diverse data. NOS and ACF capabilities along with open access to various science, infrastructure and human data, interconnected modeling, data assimilation, simulations, surrogate modeling, high-performance computing and advanced visualization, will define a powerful framework that could be utilized for local, regional or global and/or thematic digital twins. This presentation will describe a general overview of the AIST ESDT vision including prior work done in the areas of NOS and ACF as well as current and upcoming ESDT projects.

Jacqueline Le Moigne↗
NASA NTRS2000

Discriminability measures for predicting readability of text on textured backgrounds

Several discriminability measures were examined for their ability to predict reading search times for three levels of text contrast and a range of backgrounds (plain, a periodic texture, and four spatial-frequency-filtered textures created from the periodic texture). Search times indicate that these background variations only affect readability when the text contrast is low, and that spatial frequency content of the background affects readability. These results were not well predicted by the single variables of text contrast (Spearman rank correlation = -0.64) and background RMS contrast (0.08), but a global masking index and a spatial-frequency-selective masking index led to better predictions (-0.84 and -0.81, respectively). c2000 Optical Society of America.

NASA Discipline Space Human Factors↗
NASA NTRS2000

Renewable Energy SCADA/Training Using NASA's Advanced Technology Communication Satellite

The lack of electrical energy in the rural communities of developing countries is well known, as is the economic unfeasibility of providing much needed energy to these regions via electric grids. Renewable energy (RE) can provide an economic advantage over conventional forms in meeting some of these energy needs. The use of a Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) arrangement via satellite could enable experts at remote locations to provide technical assistance to local trainees while they acquire a measure of proficiency with a newly installed RE system through hands-on training programs using the same communications link. Upon full mastery of the technologies, indigenous personnel could also employ similar SCADA arrangements to remotely monitor and control their constellation of RE systems. Two separate ACTS technology verification experiments (TVEs) have demonstrated that the portability of the Ultra Small Aperture Terminal (USAT) and the versatility of NASA's Advanced Communications Technology Satellite (ACTS), as well as the advantages of Ka band satellites, can be invaluable in providing energy training via distance education (DE), and for implementing renewable energy system SCADA. What has not been tested is the capabilities of these technologies for a simultaneous implementation of renewable energy DE and SCADA. Such concurrent implementations will be useful for preparing trainees in developing countries for their eventual SCADA operations. The project described in this correspondence is the first effort, to our knowledge, in this specific TVE. The setup for this experiment consists of a one-Watt USAT located at Florida Solar Energy Center (FSEC) connected to two satellite modems tuned to different frequencies to establish two duplex ACTS Ka-band communication channels. A short training program on operation and maintenance of the system will be delivered while simultaneously monitoring and controlling the hybrid using the same satellite communications link. The trainees will include faculty and students from Savannah State University, and staff from FSEC. An interactive internet link will be used to allow faculty from the University of West Indies to participate in the training session.

Kalu, A.↗
NASA NTRS1999

NASA/NOAA: Earth Science Electronic Theater 1999. Earth Science Observations, Analysis and Visualization: Roots in the 60s - Vision for the Next Millennium

The Etheater presents visualizations which span the period from the original Suomi/Hasler animations of the first ATS-1 GEO weather satellite images in 1966, to the latest 1999 NASA Earth Science Vision for the next 25 years. Hot off the SGI-Onyx Graphics-Supercomputer are NASA''s visualizations of Hurricanes Mitch, Georges, Fran and Linda. These storms have been recently featured on the covers of National Geographic, Time, Newsweek and Popular Science. Highlights will be shown from the NASA hurricane visualization resource video tape that has been used repeatedly this season on National and International network TV. Results will be presented from a new paper on automatic wind measurements in Hurricane Luis from 1-min GOES images that appeared in the November BAMS. The visualizations are produced by the NASA Goddard Visualization & Analysis Laboratory, and Scientific Visualization Studio, as well as other Goddard and NASA groups using NASA, NOAA, ESA, and NASDA Earth science datasets. Visualizations will be shown from the Earth Science ETheater 1999 recently presented in Tokyo, Paris, Munich, Sydney, Melbourne, Honolulu, Washington, New York, and Dallas. The presentation Jan 11-14 at the AMS meeting in Dallas used a 4-CPU SGI/CRAY Onyx Infinite Reality Super Graphics Workstation with 8 GB RAM and a Terabyte Disk at 3840 X 1024 resolution with triple synchronized BarcoReality 9200 projectors on a 60ft wide screen. Visualizations will also be featured from the new Earth Today Exhibit which was opened by Vice President Gore on July 2, 1998 at the Smithsonian Air & Space Museum in Washington, as well as those presented for possible use at the American Museum of Natural History (NYC), Disney EPCOT, and other venues. New methods are demonstrated for visualizing, interpreting, comparing, organizing and analyzing immense HyperImage remote sensing datasets and three dimensional numerical model results. We call the data from many new Earth sensing satellites, HyperImage datasets, because they have such high resolution in the spectral, temporal, spatial, and dynamic range domains. The traditional numerical spreadsheet paradigm has been extended to develop a scientific visualization approach for processing HyperImage datasets and 3D model results interactively. The advantages of extending the powerful spreadsheet style of computation to multiple sets of images and organizing image processing were demonstrated using the Distributed Image SpreadSheet (DISS). The DISS is being used as a high performance testbed Next Generation Internet (NGI) VisAnalysis of: 1) El Nino SSTs and NDVI response 2) Latest GOES 10 5-min rapid Scans of 26 day 5000 frame movie of March & April 198 weather and tornadic storms 3) TRMM rainfall and lightning 4)GOES 9 satellite images/winds and NOAA aircraft radar of hurricane Luis, 5) lightning detector data merged with GOES image sequences, 6) Japanese GMS, TRMM, & ADEOS data 7) Chinese FY2 data 8) Meteosat & ERS/ATSR data 9) synchronized manipulation of multiple 3D numerical model views; etc. will be illustrated. The Image SpreadSheet has been highly successful in producing Earth science visualizations for public outreach.

Hasler, A. Fritz↗
NASA NTRS1999

NASA/NOAA: Earth Science Electronic Theater 1999

The Electronic Theater (E-theater) presents visualizations which span the period from the original Suomi/Hasler animations of the first ATS-1 GEO weather satellite images in 1966 to the latest 1999 NASA Earth Science Vision for the next 25 years. Hot off the SGI-Onyx Graphics-Supercomputer are NASA's visualizations of Hurricanes Mitch, Georges, Fran and Linda. These storms have been recently featured on the covers of National Geographic, Time, Newsweek and Popular Science. Highlights will be shown from the NASA hurricane visualization resource video tape that has been used repeatedly this season on National and International network TV. Results will be presented from a new paper on automatic wind measurements in Hurricane Luis from 1-min GOES images that appeared in the November BAMS. The visualizations are produced by the NASA Goddard Visualization and Analysis Laboratory (VAL/912), and Scientific Visualization Studio (SVS/930), as well as other Goddard and NASA groups using NASA, NOAA, ESA, and NASDA Earth science datasets. Visualizations will be shown from the Earth Science E-Theater 1999 recently presented in Tokyo, Paris, Munich, Sydney, Melbourne, Honolulu, Washington, New York, and Dallas. The presentation Jan 11-14 at the AMS meeting in Dallas used a 4-CPU SGI/CRAY Onyx Infinite Reality Super Graphics Workstation with 8 GB RAM and a Terabyte Disk at 3840 X 1024 resolution with triple synchronized BarcoReality 9200 projectors on a 60ft wide screen. Visualizations will also be featured from the new Earth Today Exhibit which was opened by Vice President Gore on July 2, 1998 at the Smithsonian Air & Space museum in Washington, as well as those presented for possible use at the American Museum of Natural History (NYC), Disney EPCOT, and other venues. New methods are demonstrated for visualizing, interpreting, comparing, organizing and analyzing immense HyperImage remote sensing datasets and three dimensional numerical model results. We call the data from many new Earth sensing satellites, HyperImage datasets, because they have such high resolution in the spectral, temporal, spatial, and dynamic range domains. The traditional numerical spreadsheet paradigm has been extended to develop a scientific visualization approach for processing HyperImage datasets and 3D model results interactively. The advantages of extending the powerful spreadsheet style of computation to multiple sets of images and organizing image processing were demonstrated using the Distributed image SpreadSheet (DISS). The DISS is being used as a high performance testbed Next Generation Internet (NGI) VisAnalysis of: 1) El Nino SSTs and NDVI response 2) Latest GOES 10 5-min rapid Scans of 26 day 5000 frame movie of March & April '98 weather and tornadic storms 3) TRMM rainfall and lightning 4)GOES 9 satellite images/winds and NOAA aircraft radar of hurricane Luis, 5) lightning detector data merged with GOES image sequences, 6) Japanese GMS, TRMM, & ADEOS data 7) Chinese FY2 data 8) Meteosat & ERS/ATSR data 9) synchronized manipulation of multiple 3D numerical model views; and others will be illustrated. The Image SpreadSheet has been highly successful in producing Earth science visualizations for public outreach. Many of these visualizations have been widely disseminated through the world wide web pages of the HPCC/LTP/RSD program which can be found at http://rsd.gsfc.nasa.gov/rsd The one min interval animations of Hurricane Luis on ABC Nightline and the color perspective rendering of Hurricane Fran published by TIME, LIFE, Newsweek, Popular Science, National Geographic, Scientific American, and the "Weekly Reader" are some of the examples which will be shown.

Hasler, A. Fritz↗
NASA NTRS2012

The Namibia Early Flood Warning System, A CEOS Pilot Project

Over the past year few years, an international collaboration has developed a pilot project under the auspices of Committee on Earth Observation Satellite (CEOS) Disasters team. The overall team consists of civilian satellite agencies. For this pilot effort, the development team consists of NASA, Canadian Space Agency, Univ. of Maryland, Univ. of Colorado, Univ. of Oklahoma, Ukraine Space Research Institute and Joint Research Center(JRC) for European Commission. This development team collaborates with regional , national and international agencies to deliver end-to-end disaster coverage. In particular, the team in collaborating on this effort with the Namibia Department of Hydrology to begin in Namibia . However, the ultimate goal is to expand the functionality to provide early warning over the South Africa region. The initial collaboration was initiated by United Nations Office of Outer Space Affairs and CEOS Working Group for Information Systems and Services (WGISS). The initial driver was to demonstrate international interoperability using various space agency sensors and models along with regional in-situ ground sensors. In 2010, the team created a preliminary semi-manual system to demonstrate moving and combining key data streams and delivering the data to the Namibia Department of Hydrology during their flood season which typically is January through April. In this pilot, a variety of moderate resolution and high resolution satellite flood imagery was rapidly delivered and used in conjunction with flood predictive models in Namibia. This was collected in conjunction with ground measurements and was used to examine how to create a customized flood early warning system. During the first year, the team made use of SensorWeb technology to gather various sensor data which was used to monitor flood waves traveling down basins originating in Angola, but eventually flooding villages in Namibia. The team made use of standardized interfaces such as those articulated under the Open Cloud Consortium (OGC) Sensor Web Enablement (SWE) set of web services was good [1][2]. However, it was discovered that in order to make a system like this functional, there were many performance issues. Data sets were large and located in a variety of location behind firewalls and had to be accessed across open networks, so security was an issue. Furthermore, the network access acted as bottleneck to transfer map products to where they are needed. Finally, during disasters, many users and computer processes act in parallel and thus it was very easy to overload the single string of computers stitched together in a virtual system that was initially developed. To address some of these performance issues, the team partnered with the Open Cloud Consortium (OCC) who supplied a Computation Cloud located at the University of Illinois at Chicago and some manpower to administer this Cloud. The Flood SensorWeb [3] system was interfaced to the Cloud to provide a high performance user interface and product development engine. Figure 1 shows the functional diagram of the Flood SensorWeb. Figure 2 shows some of the functionality of the Computation Cloud that was integrated. A significant portion of the original system was ported to the Cloud and during the past year, technical issues were resolved which included web access to the Cloud, security over the open Internet, beginning experiments on how to handle surge capacity by using the virtual machines in the cloud in parallel, using tiling techniques to render large data sets as layers on map, interfaces to allow user to customize the data processing/product chain and other performance enhancing techniques. The conclusion reached from the effort and this presentation is that defining the interoperability standards in a small fraction of the work. For example, once open web service standards were defined, many users could not make use of the standards due to security restrictions. Furthermore, once an interoperable sysm is functional, then a surge of users can render a system unusable, especially in the disaster domain.

Mandl, Daniel↗
NASA NTRS2012

Newly Released TRMM Version 7 Products, Other Precipitation Datasets and Data Services at NASA GES DISC

The NASA Goddard Earth Sciences Data and Information Services Center (GES DISC) is home of global precipitation product archives, in particular, the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) products. TRMM is a joint U.S.-Japan satellite mission to monitor tropical and subtropical (40 S - 40 N) precipitation and to estimate its associated latent heating. The TRMM satellite provides the first detailed and comprehensive dataset on the four dimensional distribution of rainfall and latent heating over vastly undersampled tropical and subtropical oceans and continents. The TRMM satellite was launched on November 27, 1997. TRMM data products are archived at and distributed by GES DISC. The newly released TRMM Version 7 consists of several changes including new parameters, new products, meta data, data structures, etc. For example, hydrometeor profiles in 2A12 now have 28 layers (14 in V6). New parameters have been added to several popular Level-3 products, such as, 3B42, 3B43. Version 2.2 of the Global Precipitation Climatology Project (GPCP) dataset has been added to the TRMM Online Visualization and Analysis System (TOVAS; URL: http://disc2.nascom.nasa.gov/Giovanni/tovas/), allowing online analysis and visualization without downloading data and software. The GPCP dataset extends back to 1979. Version 3 of the Global Precipitation Climatology Centre (GPCC) monitoring product has been updated in TOVAS as well. The product provides global gauge-based monthly rainfall along with number of gauges per grid. The dataset begins in January 1986. To facilitate data and information access and support precipitation research and applications, we have developed a Precipitation Data and Information Services Center (PDISC; URL: http://disc.gsfc.nasa.gov/precipitation). In addition to TRMM, PDISC provides current and past observational precipitation data. Users can access precipitation data archives consisting of both remote sensing and in-situ observations. Users can use these data products to conduct a wide variety of activities, including case studies, model evaluation, uncertainty investigation, etc. To support Earth science applications, PDISC provides users near-real-time precipitation products over the Internet. At PDISC, users can access tools and software. Documentation, FAQ and assistance are also available. Other capabilities include: 1) Mirador (http://mirador.gsfc.nasa.gov/), a simplified interface for searching, browsing, and ordering Earth science data at NASA Goddard Earth Sciences Data and Information Services Center (GES DISC). Mirador is designed to be fast and easy to learn; 2)TOVAS; 3) NetCDF data download for the GIS community; 4) Data via OPeNDAP (http://disc.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov/services/opendap/). The OPeNDAP provides remote access to individual variables within datasets in a form usable by many tools, such as IDV, McIDAS-V, Panoply, Ferret and GrADS; 5) The Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) Web Map Service (WMS) (http://disc.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov/services/wxs_ogc.shtml). The WMS is an interface that allows the use of data and enables clients to build customized maps with data coming from a different network.

Liu, Zhong↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Preliminary Assessment of the Impact on the V-Band Oxygen Channels From Satellite Communication Uplinks

We calculate the percentage of time that an ATMS-like instrument [1] will be illuminated by the uplink beam of one of the proposed V-band communication system and estimate the damage resulting from such exposure. Using a combination of openly available information and educated guesses about the location and characteristics of the up/down link terminals, we constructed the ground segment of a hypothetical high-speed communication network. The space segment of the network was constructed from the orbital data of the existing Starlink constellation [2] of 6223 communication satellites (comsats) which is used as strawman to represent any other possible constellation of communication satellites. It is shown that without a very delicate balance of frequency allocations (science vs telecommunications), coupled with extremely steep and deep bandpass-defining filters, and strict adherence to the agreed limits (i.e. no out-of-band transmissions) the deployment of the telecommunication network leads to almost-complete loss of some important geophysical data. For the analysis we use the spectral characteristics of the ATMS instrument with the ephemeris for the NOAA-21 satellite [3]. The analysis is conducted for the USA and the simulation covers 8 consecutive days in July 2024. Effective and accurate microwave remote sensing of the atmosphere depends on the availability of interference-free spectrum windows at frequencies which are prescribed by physical processes [e.g. 4]. The family of resonant lines of the oxygen molecule near 60 GHz provides a unique opportunity to sample the vertical distribution of temperature and density from space, and it has been exploited for weather and climate studies from polar-orbiting satellites since 1978 (MSU on TIROS-N [5]). It remains a staple in the payloads operated by Russia, China, USA, Japan, France, India, UK, Ukraine [6] which are built around a common blueprint: a few wide-band (hundreds of MHz) channels around 50 GHz to sample the atmosphere and the surface while several more channels with high spectral resolution (few MHz) sample the individual resonant lines. Accurate retrieval of the environmental parameters depends upon the data provided by both sets of channels, and the their location in frequency space is not arbitrary and cannot be altered at will [7, 8]. The introduction of 5G technology in 2019 has driven telecommunication companies to request more bandwidth to be dedicated to their devices. This additional bandwidth is only available in spectral regions traditionally reserved for environmental and astrophysical research, such as the V-band between 50 and 60 GHz for up/downlink between satellites in low-earth orbits and terminals connected to fiberoptics network for distribution to high-speed local internet services. The power broadcast by the uplink communication leg is many orders of magnitude greater than the natural thermal signal emitted from the Earth scene. If the ground antenna were to perfectly align with the passive instrument’s antenna, the spaceborne receiver would suffer permanent, irreparable damage. While a direct boresight-to-boresight conjunction is extremely unlikely (even with a large constellation of satellites the fraction of the celestial sphere occupied by the satellites remains minuscule) the finite size of the ground station’s antenna beam in the sky suggests that the ATMS will be in the near background (as seen from the ground station) of one of the communication satellites and will be illuminated by either the main lobe or the near sidelobes of the uplink antenna more often than it is desirable. For our analysis we first calculate the position of the ATMS with respect to each of the ground stations at a resolution of 0.2 sec, then calculate the position of each of the comsats which are at least 25 deg above the station’s local horizon; finally we calculate the angle between the line-of-sight of the ATMS and the line-of-sight of the comsat. We assume that the gain pattern of the ground station is circularly symmetric; the angle-off-station-boresight then provides an attenuation of the uplink power which we use to assess the likely effect upon the passive instrument’s operations. We assume that each ground station can communicate with all the comsats in its field of view; this implies that, on average, a ground station can engage with 46 comsats simultaneously. The analysis is repeated for the case when the uplink broadcast within the ATMS passive channels (in-band scenario) and for the case when the uplink is limited to frequencies adjacent to the ATMS channels (out-of-band scenario). The antenna of the ground station is modelled as having a HPBW (Half-Power Beam Width) of 0.16 deg and EIRP (Equivalent Isotropic Radiated Power) of 70 dBW. We account for the geometric dissipation of the signal caused by the satellite orbital altitude, the attenuation induced by atmospheric gasses at 51 GHz and the mismatch between the circular polarization of the ground-based transmitting antenna and the linear polarization of the satellite-borne receiving antenna. The damages on ATMS are estimated from bench-level measurement conducted at the ATMS’ manufacturer facilities [unpublished].

passive microwave↗
NASA NTRS2004

SOHO Ultraviolet Coronagraph Spectrometer (UVCS) Mission Operations and Data Analysis

The scientific goal of UVCS is to obtain detailed empirical descriptions of the extended solar corona as it evolves over the solar cycle and to use these descriptions to identify and understand the physical processes responsible for coronal heating, solar wind acceleration, coronal mass ejections (CMEs), and the phenomena that establish the plasma properties of the solar wind as measured by "in situ" solar wind instruments. This report covers the period from 15 February 2003 to 14 April 2004. During that time, UVCS observations have consisted of three types: 1) standard synoptic observations comprising, primarily, the H I Lyalpha line profile and the 0 VI 103.2 and 103.7 nm intensity over a range of heights from 1.5 to about 3.0 solar radii and covering 360 degrees about the Sun, 2) sit and stare observations for major flare watches, and 3) special observations designed by the UVCS Lead Observer of the Week for a specific scientific purpose. The special observations are often coordinated with those of other space-based and ground-based instruments and they often are part of SOHO joint observation programs and campaigns. Lead observers have included UVCS Co-Investigators, scientists from the solar physics community and several graduate and undergraduate level students. UVCS has continued to achieve its purpose of using powerful spectroscopic diagnostic techniques to obtain a much more detailed description of coronal structures and dynamic phenomena than existed before the SOHO mission. The new descriptions of coronal mass ejections (CMEs) and coronal structures from UVCS have inspired a large number of theoretical studies aimed at identifying the physical processes responsible for CMEs and solar wind acceleration in coronal holes and streamers. UVCS has proven to be a very stable instrument. Stellar observations have demonstrated its radiometric stability. UVCS has not required any flight software modifications and all mechanisms are operational. The UVCS 0 VI Channel with its redundant optical path for wavelengths near H I Lyalpha is capable of observing the entire UVCS wavelength range. The regions of the detector currently being used require different grating angles for direct OVI observations and redundant path H I Lyalpha observations, and so those can no longer be observed simultaneously. Since December 1998, the 0 VI Channel has been used for all UVCS observations. Although the H I Lyalpha Channel and detector are still operational, increases in the dark count up to about 5x10(exp 4) counts/sec/pixel and an increase in high voltage current to within a factor of two of the maximum used in the laboratory before flight led to the decision to not use that detector after 1998. The visible light channel functioned nominally during the reporting period. UVCS data, data analysis software, calibration files and the mission log are available from the SOHO archive and SAO. All UVCS data are now available within three months of the observations to scientists and the general public via the SOHO Data Archive and SAO. UVCS has resulted in 33 scientific papers in 2003. There were numerous presentations at scientific meetings. UVCS Education and Public Outreach activities involved nine members of the UVCS team. During the reporting period, there were over a dozen events directed at students and teachers, museum audiences, and public audiences via the mass media, internet and educational literature.

Gurman, Joseph↗