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At least 1,099 records · Page 61

Heikkila's mechanism for impulsive plasma transport through the magnetopause - A reexamination

This paper reexamines arguments formulated and restated by Heikkila to the effect that a magnetosheath plasma cloud having 'excess' momentum which impinges on the dayside magnetopause boundary is able to flow continuously through the boundary onto both open and closed flux tubes in the interior. It is shown that the argument used to arrive at this conclusion is not correct. The error in the argument concerns the nature of the flow which is associated with the induction electric field produced by the perturbed current layer, which was assumed by Heikkila to be such as to keep the plasma jet just moving with the boundary. Heikkila's argument, correctly applied, does not lead to 'impulsive transport' of plasma through the magnetopause.

Owen, C. J.↗

TOPEX/POSEIDON microwave radiometer performance and in-flight calibration

Results of the in-flight calibration and performance evaluation campaign for the TOPEX/POSEIDON microwave radiometer (TMR) are presented. Intercomparisons are made between TMR and various sources of ground truth, including ground-based microwave water vapor radiometers, radiosondes, global climatological models, special sensor microwave imager data over the Amazon rain forest, and models of clear, calm, subpolar ocean regions. After correction for preflight errors in the processing of thermal/vacuum data, relative channel offsets in the open ocean TMR brightness temperatures were noted at the approximately = 1 K level for the three TMR frequencies. Larger absolute offsets of 6-9 K over the rain forest indicated a approximately = 5% gain error in the three channel calibrations. This was corrected by adjusting the antenna pattern correction (APC) algorithm. AS 10% scale error in the TMR path delay estimates, relative to coincident radiosondes, was corrected in part by the APC adjustment and in part by a 5% modification to the value assumed for the 22.235 FGHz water vapor line strength in the path delay retrieval algorithm. After all in-flight corrections to the calibration, TMR global retrieval accuracy for the wet tropospheric range correction is estimated at 1.1 cm root mean square (RMS) with consistent peformance under clear, cloudy, and windy conditions.

Ruf, C. S.↗

Optical Modeling Activities for NASA's James Webb Space Telescope (JWST): Wavefront Aberrations due to Alignment and Figure Compensation - 3

This is part three of a series describing the ongoing optical modeling activities for James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). The first two discussed modeling JWST on-orbit performance using wavefront sensitivities to predict line of sight motion induced blur, and stability during thermal transients. The work here investigates the aberrations resulting from alignment and figure compensation of the controllable degrees of freedom (primary and secondary mirrors), which may be encountered during ground alignment and on-orbit commissioning of the observatory. The optical design of the telescope is a three-mirror anastigmat, with an active fold mirror at the exit pupil for fine guiding. The primary mirror is over 6.5 meters in diameter, and is composed of 18 hexagonal segments that can individually positioned on hexapods, as well as compensated for radius of curvature. This effectively gives both alignment and figure control of the primary mirror. The secondary mirror can be moved in rigid body only, giving alignment control of the telescope. The tertiary mirror is fixed, however, as well as the location of the science instrumentation. Simulations are performed of various combinations of active alignment corrections of component figure errors, and of primary mirror figure corrections of alignment errors. Single field point and moderate field knowledge is assumed in the corrections. Aberrations over the field are reported for the varying cases, and examples presented.

Howard, Joseph↗

An Examination of the Spatial Distribution of Carbon Dioxide and Systematic Errors

The industrial period and modern age is characterized by combustion of coal, oil, and natural gas for primary energy and transportation leading to rising levels of atmospheric of CO2. This increase, which is being carefully measured, has ramifications throughout the biological world. Through remote sensing, it is possible to measure how many molecules of CO2 lie in a defined column of air. However, other gases and particles are present in the atmosphere, such as aerosols and water, which make such measurements more complicated1. Understanding the detailed geometry and path length of the observation is vital to computing the concentration of CO2. Comparing these satellite readings with ground-truth data (TCCON) the systematic errors arising from these sources can be assessed. Once the error is understood, it can be scaled for in the retrieval algorithms to create a set of data, which is closer to the TCCON measurements1. Using this process, the algorithms are being developed to reduce bias, within.1% worldwide of the true value. At this stage, the accuracy is within 1%, but through correcting small errors contained in the algorithms, such as accounting for the scattering of sunlight, the desired accuracy can be achieved.

Carbon Dioxide (CO2)↗

Investigation of Fiber Optics Based Phased Locked Diode Lasers

Optical power beaming requires a high intensity source and a system to address beam phase and location. A synthetic aperture array of phased locked sources can provide the necessary power levels as well as a means to correct for phase errors. A fiber optic phase modulator with a master oscillator and power amplifier (MOPA) using an injection-locking semiconductor optical amplifier has proven to be effective in correcting phase errors as large as 4pi in an interferometer system. Phase corrections with the piezoelectric fiber stretcher were made from 0 - 10 kHz, with most application oriented corrections requiring only 1 kHz. The amplifier did not lose locked power output while the phase was changed, however its performance was below expectation. Results of this investigation indicate fiber stretchers and amplifiers can be incorporated into a MOPA system to achieve successful earth based power beaming.

Burke, Paul D.↗

Using Density-Corrected DFT to Understand Density-Driven and Functional-Dependent Errors in Ab Initio Simulations of the Hydrated Electron

The hydrated electron, an excess electron in liquid water, plays a crucial role in a plethora of chemical processes, motivating extensive research efforts to characterize its structure, dynamics, and reactivity in solution. Recent theoretical approaches to understanding this intriguing object have involved ab initio simulations based on density functional theory (DFT). Although DFT allows for the study of hydrated electron reactivity and quantum mechanical behavior, it is well-known that anionic systems can suffer from significant density-driven errors (DDEs). Density-corrected DFT (DC-DFT) provides a framework to mitigate such errors; the method reduces DDEs by replacing the self-consistent (SC) density associated with a given density functional with the Hartree–Fock (HF) density. Since HF densities tend to be more localized than DFT SC densities, the DC-DFT scheme significantly improves errors in calculations where the SC density is spuriously delocalized. Here, we investigate how the use of density correction affects the calculated properties of the DFT-simulated (PBEh) hydrated electron, a particularly challenging diffuse anionic system to simulate. First, we analyze charge delocalization in a system consisting of a model octahedral hydrated electron water cluster (the so-called Kevan structure) along with a spatially separated sulfur atom. We show that the use of density correction indeed reduces DDEs in comparison to a standard DFT global hybrid functional. We then propagate molecular dynamics trajectories of the hydrated electron using DC-DFT, where we find that DC further localizes electron density in the cavity region, a signature of reduced charge delocalization. Unfortunately, the decreased radius of gyration of the spin density and corresponding tightening of the local solvation structure from density correction causes predicted observables to deviate further from experimental measurements than when density correction is not employed. Here, we argue that DC’s worse agreement with experiment results from the removal of a fortuitous cancellation of errors that is intrinsic to the PBEh functional. This indicates that the difficulties with DFT to simulate hydrated electrons are primarily due to the inherent approximations in DFT rather than to density-driven errors.

Density functional theory↗

Adaptive optical correction for in vivo two-photon fluorescence microscopy with neural fields

Adaptive optics restore ideal imaging performance in complex samples by measuring and correcting optical aberrations but often require custom-built microscopes with carefully aligned wavefront sensing/shaping devices and can be susceptible to sample motion. Here we describe NeAT, a computational framework using neural fields for adaptive optics two-photon fluorescence microscopy. NeAT estimates wavefront aberration and recovers sample structure from a 3D image stack without requiring external datasets for training. Incorporating motion correction in learning and correcting conjugation errors commonly found in commercial microscopes, NeAT is designed for deployment in biological laboratories for in vivo imaging. We validate NeAT’s performance using a custom-built microscope with a wavefront sensor under varying signal-to-noise ratios, aberration and motion conditions. With a commercial microscope, we demonstrate real-time aberration correction for in vivo morphological and functional imaging in the living mouse brain, with NeAT improving the signal and accuracy of glutamate and calcium imaging of synapses and neurons.

Kang, Iksung↗

A two dimensional interface element for coupling of independently modeled three dimensional finite element meshes and extensions to dynamic and non-linear regimes

The work reported here pertains only to the first year of research for a three year proposal period. As a prelude to this two dimensional interface element, the one dimensional element was tested and errors were discovered in the code for built-up structures and curved interfaces. These errors were corrected and the benchmark Boeing composite crown panel was analyzed successfully. A study of various splines led to the conclusion that cubic B-splines best suit this interface element application. A least squares approach combined with cubic B-splines was constructed to make a smooth function from the noisy data obtained with random error in the coordinate data points of the Boeing crown panel analysis. Preliminary investigations for the formulation of discontinuous 2-D shell and 3-D solid elements were conducted.

Aminpour, Mohammad↗

Investigation of several aspects of LANDSAT-4 data quality

No insurmountable problems in change detection analysis were found when portions of scenes collected simultaneously by LANDSAT 4 MSS and either LANDSAT 2 or 3. The cause of the periodic noise in LANDSAT 4 MSS images which had a RMS value of approximately 2DN should be corrected in the LANDSAT D instrument before its launch. Analysis of the P-tape of the Arkansas scene shows bands within the same focal plane very well registered except for the thermal band which was misregistered by approximately three 28.5 meter pixels in both directions. It is possible to derive tight confidence bounds for the registration errors. Preliminary analyses of the Sacramento and Arkansas scenes reveals a very high degree of consistency with earlier results for bands 3 vs 1, 3 vs 4, and 3 vs 5. Results are presented in table form. It is suggested that attention be given to the standard deviations of registrations errors to judge whether or not they will be within specification once any known mean registration errors are corrected. Techniques used for MTF analysis of a Washington scene produced noisy results.

Wrigley, R. C.↗

HRA Aerospace Challenges

Compared to equipment designed to perform the same function over and over, humans are just not as reliable. Computers and machines perform the same action in the same way repeatedly getting the same result, unless equipment fails or a human interferes. Humans who are supposed to perform the same actions repeatedly often perform them incorrectly due to a variety of issues including: stress, fatigue, illness, lack of training, distraction, acting at the wrong time, not acting when they should, not following procedures, misinterpreting information or inattention to detail. Why not use robots and automatic controls exclusively if human error is so common? In an emergency or off normal situation that the computer, robotic element, or automatic control system is not designed to respond to, the result is failure unless a human can intervene. The human in the loop may be more likely to cause an error, but is also more likely to catch the error and correct it. When it comes to unexpected situations, or performing multiple tasks outside the defined mission parameters, humans are the only viable alternative. Human Reliability Assessments (HRA) identifies ways to improve human performance and reliability and can lead to improvements in systems designed to interact with humans. Understanding the context of the situation that can lead to human errors, which include taking the wrong action, no action or making bad decisions provides additional information to mitigate risks. With improved human reliability comes reduced risk for the overall operation or project.

DeMott, Diana↗

An Evolve-Then-Correct Reduced Order Model for Hidden Fluid Dynamics

In this paper, we put forth an evolve-then-correct reduced order modeling approach that combines intrusive and nonintrusive models to take hidden physical processes into account. Specifically, we split the underlying dynamics into known and unknown components. In the known part, we first utilize an intrusive Galerkin method projected on a set of basis functions obtained by proper orthogonal decomposition. We then present two variants of correction formula based on the assumption that the observed data are a manifestation of all relevant processes. The first method uses a standard least-squares regression with a quadratic approximation and requires solving a rank-deficient linear system, while the second approach employs a recurrent neural network emulator to account for the correction term. We further enhance our approach by using an orthonormality conforming basis interpolation approach on a Grassmannian manifold to address off-design conditions. The proposed framework is illustrated here with the application of two-dimensional co-rotating vortex simulations under modeling uncertainty. The results demonstrate highly accurate predictions underlining the effectiveness of the evolve-then-correct approach toward real-time simulations, where the full process model is not known a priori.

long short-term memory↗

Technology Advancement of the Visible Nulling Coronagraph

The critical high contrast imaging technology for the Extrasolar Planetary Imaging Coronagraph (EPIC) mission concept is the visible nulling coronagraph (VNC). EPIC would be capable of imaging jovian planets, dust/debris disks, and potentially super-Earths and contribute to answering how bright the debris disks are for candidate stars. The contrast requirement for EPIC is 10(exp 9) contrast at 125 milli-arseconds inner working angle. To advance the VNC technology NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center, in collaboration with Lockheed-Martin, previously developed a vacuum VNC testbed, and achieved narrowband and broadband suppression of the core of the Airy disk. Recently our group was awarded a NASA Technology Development for Exoplanet Missions to achieve two milestones: (i) 10(exp 8) contrast in narrowband light, and, (ii) 10(ecp 9) contrast in broader band light; one milestone per year, and both at 2 Lambda/D inner working angle. These will be achieved with our 2nd generation testbed known as the visible nulling testbed (VNT). It contains a MEMS based hex-packed segmented deformable mirror known as the multiple mirror array (MMA) and coherent fiber bundle, i.e. a spatial filter array (SFA). The MMA is in one interferometric arm and works to set the wavefront differences between the arms to zero. Each of the MMA segments is optically mapped to a single mode fiber of the SFA, and the SFA passively cleans the sub-aperture wavefront error leaving only piston, tip and tilt error to be controlled. The piston degree of freedom on each segment is used to correct the wavefront errors, while the tip/tilt is used to simultaneously correct the amplitude errors. Thus the VNT controls both amplitude and wavefront errors with a single MMA in closed-loop in a vacuum tank at approx.20 Hz. Herein we will discuss our ongoing progress with the VNT.

Lyon, Richard G.↗

Analysis of the new polarimeter for the Marshall Space Flight Center vector magnetograph

The magnetograph was upgraded in both electronic control of the magnetograph hardware and in the polarization optics. The problems associated with the orignal polarimeter were: (1) field of view errors associated with the natural birefringence of the KD*P crystals; (2.) KD*P electrode failure due to the halfwave dc voltage required in one of the operational sequences; and (3) breakdown of the retardation properties of some KD*Ps when exposed to a zero to halfwave modulation (DC) scheme. The new polarimeter gives up the flexibility provided by two variable waveplates to adjust the retardances of the optics for a particular polarization measurement, but solves the problems associated with the original polarimeter. With the addition of the quartz quarterwave plates, a new optical alignment was developed to allow the remaining KD*P to correct for errors in the waveplates. The new optical alignment of the polarimeter is prescribed. The various sources of error, and how those errors are minimized so that the magnetograph can look at the transverse field in real time are discussed.

West, E. A.↗

The many-body expansion for aqueous systems revisited: II. Alkali metal and halide ion – water interactions

We present a detailed study of the Many-Body Expansion (MBE) for alkali metal and halide ion-water interactions and quantify the effect of these ions on the strength of the surrounding aqueous hydrogen bonding environment. Building on our previous work on neutral water clusters [J. P. Heindel and S. S. Xantheas, J. Chem. Theor. Comput. 16 (11), 6843–6855 (2020)], we carry out the complete MBE for ion-water clusters, Z+/-(H2O)9, where Z = Li+, K+, Cs+, Cl-, Br-, I- and compare with the results for (H2O)10. The 2-B ion-water (I-W) interaction represents a larger percentage of the total cluster binding energy compared to a pure water cluster of the same size with the total 3-B term being smaller and of opposite sign (repulsive) whereas higher order terms are essentially negligible. The same oscillating behavior around zero for MBE terms higher than the 5-B with basis set that was reported for water clusters is also observed for the ion-water clusters considered with Basis Set Superposition Error (BSSE) corrections amending this like in the water cluster case. A remarkable, linear anti-correlation between the total 2-B ion-water and the total 2-B and 3-B water-water interactions is found, quantifying the effect of the different ions in disrupting and altering (weakening) the neighboring hydrogen bonded water network. Our results suggest a universal behavior of the two different families of ions (alkali metals and halides) for both the correlations of the various components of the total binding energies as well as the estimate of the 2-B BSSE correction which is reported to follow a common profile for ion-water and water-water interactions when cast in terms of reduced distances and energies. We expect our insights into the nature of BSSE will be important for future ab initio based, many-body molecular dynamics studies.

ion-water interactions, water-water interaction, m↗

The Algorithm Theoretical Basis Document for Tidal Corrections

This Algorithm Theoretical Basis Document deals with the tidal corrections that need to be applied to range measurements made by the Geoscience Laser Altimeter System (GLAS). These corrections result from the action of ocean tides and Earth tides which lead to deviations from an equilibrium surface. Since the effect of tides is dependent of the time of measurement, it is necessary to remove the instantaneous tide components when processing altimeter data, so that all measurements are made to the equilibrium surface. The three main tide components to consider are the ocean tide, the solid-earth tide and the ocean loading tide. There are also long period ocean tides and the pole tide. The approximate magnitudes of these components are illustrated in Table 1, together with estimates of their uncertainties (i.e. the residual error after correction). All of these components are important for GLAS measurements over the ice sheets since centimeter-level accuracy for surface elevation change detection is required. The effect of each tidal component is to be removed by approximating their magnitude using tidal prediction models. Conversely, assimilation of GLAS measurements into tidal models will help to improve them, especially at high latitudes.

Fricker, Helen A.↗

Comparing the performance of density functionals in describing the adsorption of atoms and small molecules on Ni(111)

Reaction networks calculated using density functional theory (DFT) play a crucial role in understanding and predicting heterogeneous catalyst performance. However, results obtained using different density functionals can vary significantly. Accordingly, it is important to assess the accuracy of available functionals in capturing adsorption energetics derived from single-crystal adsorption microcalorimetry experiments. Here, we evaluate how different density functionals describe the molecular and dissociative adsorption of CH 3 I, the adsorption of CH 3 , I, and H, and the dissociative adsorption of CH 4 on Ni(111). First, we identify energetically-preferred adsorbed states for each adsorbate at three surface coverages and calculate the corresponding enthalpies of adsorption at 160 K. Then, we compare the results to experimental measurements published in the literature. For each adsorption process we find at least one functional that is quantitatively accurate within experimental error, but no functional is accurate (within experimental error) for all adsorption processes studied. Even when assuming an additional DFT error of ±20 kJ/mol on top of the experimental error, only the PBE-D3 and RPBE-D3 functionals are accurate for all considered adsorption systems. Overall, these results indicate that quantitative agreement between density functional theory calculations and experimental measurements is both system- and functional-dependent. Importantly, single-crystal adsorption microcalorimetry experiments will continue to play an important role for benchmarking density functionals.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗

Determination of Small Animal Long Bone Properties Using Densitometry

Assessment of bone structural property changes due to loading regimens or pharmacological treatment typically requires destructive mechanical testing and sectioning. Our group has accurately and non-destructively estimated three dimensional cross-sectional areal properties (principal moments of inertia, Imax and Imin, and principal angle, Theta) of human cadaver long bones from pixel-by-pixel analysis of three non-coplanar densitometry scans. Because the scanner beam width is on the order of typical small animal diapbyseal diameters, applying this technique to high-resolution scans of rat long bones necessitates additional processing to minimize errors induced by beam smearing, such as dependence on sample orientation and overestimation of Imax and Imin. We hypothesized that these errors are correctable by digital image processing of the raw scan data. In all cases, four scans, using only the low energy data (Hologic QDR-1000W, small animal mode), are averaged to increase image signal-to-noise ratio. Raw scans are additionally processed by interpolation, deconvolution by a filter derived from scanner beam characteristics, and masking using a variable threshold based on image dynamic range. To assess accuracy, we scanned an aluminum step phantom at 12 orientations over a range of 180 deg about the longitudinal axis, in 15 deg increments. The phantom dimensions (2.5, 3.1, 3.8 mm x 4.4 mm; Imin/Imax: 0.33-0.74) were comparable to the dimensions of a rat femur which was also scanned. Cross-sectional properties were determined at 0.25 mm increments along the length of the phantom and femur. The table shows average error (+/- SD) from theory of Imax, Imin, and Theta) over the 12 orientations, calculated from raw and fully processed phantom images, as well as standard deviations about the mean for the femur scans. Processing of phantom scans increased agreement with theory, indicating improved accuracy. Smaller standard deviations with processing indicate increased precision and repeatability. Standard deviations for the femur are consistent with those of the phantom. We conclude that in conjunction with digital image enhancement, densitometry scans are suitable for non-destructive determination of areal properties of small animal bones of comparable size to our phantom, allowing prediction of Imax and Imin within 2.5% and Theta within a fraction of a degree. This method represents a considerable extension of current methods of analyzing bone tissue distribution in small animal bones.

Breit, Gregory A.↗

Progress of Coating Stress Compensation of Silicon Mirrors for Lynx X-ray Telescope Mission Concept Using Thermal Oxide Patterning Method

A thermal oxide patterning method has proven to be effective for correcting coating-stress-induced distortion on flat silicon wafers. We report progress on developing this method for correcting curved silicon mirrors distorted by front-side iridium coatings. Owing to the difference in geometry, a finite element model has been established to calculate the appropriate duty cycle maps in thermal oxide hexagon patterns used for compensation. In addition, a photolithographic process, along with three-dimensional printed equipment, has been developed for creating patterns precisely on the back side of curved mirrors. The developed method has been used to recover the original surface shape of two silicon mirrors which are 100-mm long, 0.5-mm thick, having 312-mm radius of curvature, and 30 deg in azimuthal span (Wolter-I geometry). These mirrors’ front sides are sputter-coated by 20-nm iridium layers with ∼-70 N∕m integrated stress. Measurement results show that the developed method can mitigate coating-induced distortion by a factor of ∼5 in RMS height and ∼4 in RMS slope error, corresponding to ∼0.5 arc sec RMS slope error. Residual errors after correction are dominated by midfrequency ripples created during the annealing process, which will be resolved in the future. The presented method is precise and inexpensive and a potential candidate for resolving the coating stress issue for Lynx optics in the future.

x-ray↗