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At least 127 records · Page 7

Using Remote Sensing as a Plasma Diagnostic: A Discussion of Techniques Being Used to Probe the Ionosphere in Order to Determine the Energy and Spectral Characteristics of Precipitating Electrons and Protons

Spectrally resolved global images of the Earth from recent (and planned) missions are being (and will be) used to probe the ionosphere in order to determine the energy characteristics of precipitating electrons and protons. We describe the techniques that are being used, discuss the extent to which they are successful, and envision the approach that future space experiments should take in order to improve on current techniques.

Spann, J.

The Use of Transfer Radiometers in Validating the Visible through Shortwave Infrared Calibrations of Radiance Sources Used by Instruments in NASA's Earth Observing System

The detection and study of climate change over a time frame of decades requires successive generations of satellite, airborne, and ground-based instrumentation carefully calibrated against a common radiance scale. In NASA s Earth Observing System (EOS) program, the pre-launch radiometric calibration of these instruments in the wavelength region from 400 nm to 2500 nm is accomplished using internally illuminated integrating spheres and diffuse reflectance panels illuminated by irradiance standard lamps. Since 1995, the EOS Calibration Program operating within the EOS Project Science Office (PSO) has enlisted the expertise of national standards laboratories and government and university metrology laboratories in an effort to validate the radiance scales assigned to sphere and panel radiance sources by EOS instrument calibration facilities. This state-of-the-art program has been accomplished using ultra-stable transfer radiometers independently calibrated by the above participating institutions. In ten comparisons since February 1995, the agreement between the radiance measurements of the transfer radiometers is plus or minus 1.80% at 411 nm, plus or minus 1.31% at 552.5 nm, plus or minus 1.32% at 868.0 nm, plus or minus 2.54% at 1622nm, and plus or minus 2.81% at 2200nm (sigma =1).

Butler, James J.

Detecting Uniform Areas for Vicarious Calibration using Landsat TM Imagery: A Study using the Arabian and Saharan Deserts

This paper discusses a method for detecting spatially uniform sites need for radiometric characterization of remote sensing satellites. Such information is critical for scientific research applications of imagery having moderate to high resolutions (<30-m ground sampling distance (GSD)). Previously published literature indicated that areas with the African Saharan and Arabian deserts contained extremely uniform sites with respect to spatial characteristics. We developed an algorithm for detecting site uniformity and applied it to orthorectified Landsat Thematic Mapper (TM) imagery over eight uniform regions of interest. The algorithm's results were assessed using both medium-resolution (30-m GSD) Landsat 7 ETM+ and fine-resolution (<5-m GSD) IKONOS multispectral data collected over sites in Libya and Mali. Fine-resolution imagery over a Libyan site exhibited less than 1 percent nonuniformity. The research shows that Landsat TM products appear highly useful for detecting potential calibration sites for system characterization. In particular, the approach detected spatially uniform regions that frequently occur at multiple scales of observation.

Hilbert, Kent

A data base of crop nutrient use, water use, and carbon dioxide exchange in a 2O square meter growth chamber: I. Wheat as a case study

A data set is given describing the daily nutrient uptake, gas exchange, environmental conditions, and carbon (C), and nutrient partitioning at harvest for the entire canopy and root system of a wheat crop (Triticum aestivum, cv. Yecora Rojo). The data were obtained from a 20 m2 stand of wheat plants grown from planting to maturity in a closed, controlled environment, and include daily nutrient uptake [macronutrients, nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P), potassium (K), calcium (Ca), magnesium (Mg), and sulfur (S); and micronutrients, iron (Fe), boron (B), manganese (Mn), zinc (Zn), copper (Cu), and molybdenum (Mo)], canopy carbon dioxide (CO2) exchange rates, and transpiration. Environmental factors such as relative humidity, air temperature, nutrient solution temperature, pH and electrical conductivity, and photoperiod were controlled in the chamber to specific set points. A detailed description of biomass yield for each of the 64 plant growth trays comprising the 20 m2 of growth area is also provided, and includes dry weights of grain, straw, chaff, and roots, along with the concentration of nutrients in different plant tissues and the percent carbohydrate, fat, and protein. To our knowledge, this information represents one of the most extensive data sets available for a canopy of wheat grown from seed to maturity under controlled environmental and nutritional conditions, and thus may provide useful information for model development and validation. A methods section is included to qualify any assumptions that might be required for the use of the data in plant growth models, along with a daily event calendar indicating when adjustments in set points and occasional equipment or sensor failures occurred.

NASA Discipline Number 61-20

Determining CDOM Absorption Spectra in Diverse Coastal Environments Using a Multiple Pathlength, Liquid Core Waveguide System. Measuring the Absorption of CDOM in the Field Using a Multiple Pathlength Liquid Waveguide System

We evaluated the accuracy, sensitivity and precision of a multiple pathlength, liquid core waveguide (MPLCW) system for measuring colored dissolved organic matter (CDOM) absorption in the UV-visible spectral range (370-700 nm). The MPLCW has four optical paths (2.0, 9.8, 49.3, and 204 cm) coupled to a single Teflon AF sample cell. Water samples were obtained from inland, coastal and ocean waters ranging in salinity from 0 to 36 PSU. Reference solutions for the MPLCW were made having a refractive index of the sample. CDOM absorption coefficients, a(sub CDOM), and the slope of the log-linearized absorption spectra, S, were compared with values obtained using a dual-beam spectrophotometer. Absorption of phenol red secondary standards measured by the MPLCW at 558 nm were highly correlated with spectrophotometer values (r > 0.99) and showed a linear response across all four pathlengths. Values of a(sub CDOM) measured using the MPLCW were virtually identical to spectrophotometer values over a wide range of concentrations. The dynamic range of a(sub CDOM) for MPLCW measurements was 0.002 - 231.5/m. At low CDOM concentrations (a(sub 370) < 0.1/m) spectrophotometric a(sub CDOM) were slightly greater than MPLCW values and showed larger fluctuations at longer wavelengths due to limitations in instrument precision. In contrast, MPLCW spectra followed an exponential to 600 nm for all samples. The maximum deviation in replicate MPLCW spectra was less than 0.001 absorbance units. The portability, sampling, and optical characteristics of a MPLCW system provide significant enhancements for routine CDOM absorption measurements in a broad range of natural waters.

Miller, Richard L.

Methods for Characterizing Fine Particulate Matter Using Satellite Remote-Sensing Data and Ground Observations: Potential Use for Environmental Public Health Surveillance

This study describes and demonstrates different techniques for surfacing daily environmental / hazards data of particulate matter with aerodynamic diameter less than or equal to 2.5 micrometers (PM2.5) for the purpose of integrating respiratory health and environmental data for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC s) pilot study of Health and Environment Linked for Information Exchange (HELIX)-Atlanta. It described a methodology for estimating ground-level continuous PM2.5 concentrations using B-Spline and inverse distance weighting (IDW) surfacing techniques and leveraging National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectrometer (MODIS) data to complement The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) ground observation data. The study used measurements of ambient PM2.5 from the EPA database for the year 2003 as well as PM2.5 estimates derived from NASA s satellite data. Hazard data have been processed to derive the surrogate exposure PM2.5 estimates. The paper has shown that merging MODIS remote sensing data with surface observations of PM2.5 not only provides a more complete daily representation of PM2.5 than either data set alone would allow, but it also reduces the errors in the PM2.5 estimated surfaces. The results of this paper have shown that the daily IDW PM2.5 surfaces had smaller errors, with respect to observations, than those of the B-Spline surfaces in the year studied. However the IDW mean annual composite surface had more numerical artifacts, which could be due to the interpolating nature of the IDW that assumes that the maxima and minima can occur only at the observation points. Finally, the methods discussed in this paper improve temporal and spatial resolutions and establish a foundation for environmental public health linkage and association studies for which determining the concentrations of an environmental hazard such as PM2.5 with good accuracy levels is critical.

Al-Hamdan, Mohammad Z.

NASA's Core Trajectory Sub-System Project: Using JBoss Enterprise Middleware for Building Software Systems Used to Support Spacecraft Trajectory Operations

NASA's Johnson Space Center (JSC) / Flight Design and Dynamics Division (DM) has prototyped the use of Open Source middleware technology for building its next generation spacecraft mission support system. This is part of a larger initiative to use open standards and open source software as building blocks for future mission and safety critical systems. JSC is hoping to leverage standardized enterprise architectures, such as Java EE, so that its internal software development efforts can be focused on the core aspects of their problem domain. This presentation will outline the design and implementation of the Trajectory system and the lessons learned during the exercise.

Stensrud, Kjell C.

Interference Mitigation Technique Using Active Spaceborne Sensor Antenna in EESS (Active) and Space Research Service (Active) for Use in 500 MHz Bandwidth Near 9.6 GHz

This document presents an interference mitigation technique using the active spaceborne sensor SAR3 antenna in the Earth Exploration-Satellite Service (active) and Space Research Service (active) for use in a 500 MHz bandwidth near 9.6 GHz. The purpose of the document is present antenna designs which offer lower sidelobes and faster rolloff in the sidelobes which in turn mitigates the interference to other services from the EESS (active) and SRS (active) sensors.

wideband SAR modes

Using the global positioning satellite system to determine attitude rates using doppler effects

In the absence of a gyroscope, the attitude and attitude rate of a receiver can be determined using signals received by antennae on the receiver. Based on the signals received by the antennae, the Doppler difference between the signals is calculated. The Doppler difference may then be used to determine the attitude rate. With signals received from two signal sources by three antennae pairs, the three-dimensional attitude rate is determined.

Campbell, Charles E.

Using Neural Networks to Improve the Performance of Radiative Transfer Modeling Used for Geometry Dependent Surface Lambertian-Equivalent Reflectivity Calculations

Surface Lambertian-equivalent reflectivity (LER) is important for trace gas retrievals in the direct calculation of cloud fractions and indirect calculation of the air mass factor. Current trace gas retrievals use climatological surface LER's. Surface properties that impact the bidirectional reflectance distribution function (BRDF) as well as varying satellite viewing geometry can be important for retrieval of trace gases. Geometry Dependent LER (GLER) captures these effects with its calculation of sun normalized radiances (I/F) and can be used in current LER algorithms (Vasilkov et al. 2016). Pixel by pixel radiative transfer calculations are computationally expensive for large datasets. Modern satellite missions such as the Tropospheric Monitoring Instrument (TROPOMI) produce very large datasets as they take measurements at much higher spatial and spectral resolutions. Look up table (LUT) interpolation improves the speed of radiative transfer calculations but complexity increases for non-linear functions. Neural networks perform fast calculations and can accurately predict both non-linear and linear functions with little effort.

Geometry Dependent LER (GLER) capture

Fracture Prediction of Epoxy Resin using Morse Bond Potential Embedded in GAFF using Molecular Dynamics Simulations

A generic method is developed to investigate the fracture behavior of an epoxy resin using atomistic molecular (MD) dynamics simulations. The epoxy system consisted of the stoichiometric mixture of tetra-/tri-functional epoxies and di-functional hardener molecules and was cured with a step-growth crosslinking algorithm. A hybrid force field (hFF) in which Morse bond function were added in second generation-general Amber Force Field (GAFF2) was used to capture bond breaking of the crosslinked epoxy system under uniaxial deformation. The Morse bond parameters for covalent bonds in the crosslinked backbone were fit to dissociation curves computed by CASPT2/6-311+G**. After the systems in various crosslink densities were obtained and equilibrated, the full length of stress-strain (𝜎-𝜀) curve was produced including initial elastic regime, yielding, plastic flow, strain hardening, and progressive failure. We found that the hFF was effective in studying the dissociation of crosslinked polymers and understanding the failure mechanism. In the results, the hFF delivered the same elastic property obtained from the unmodified force field GAFF. The stress-strain curve, however, began to be distinct in the plastic regime due to broken covalent bonds capable of altering the tensile behavior. Once the stress reached maximum, it progressively decreased until the ultimate failure (𝜎=0). Since hFF employed the existing GAFF functions with including a minimal change of its bond potential, this approach is easier to perform and computationally more efficient for unveiling the fracture behavior of polymer materials at the molecular level than other approaches with reactive force fields. We expect this approach will be utilized to accelerate the material-by-design process for thermosets by incorporate data from molecular models.

Changwoon Jang

Can We Use the QA4ECV Black-sky Fraction of Absorbed Photosynthetically Active Radiation (FAPAR) using AVHRR Surface Reflectance to Assess Terrestrial Global Change?

NOAA platforms provide the longest period of terrestrial observation since the 1980s. The progress in calibration, atmospheric corrections and physically based land retrieval offers the opportunity to reprocess these data for extending terrestrial product time series. Within the Quality Assurance for Essential Climate Variables (QA4ECV) project, the black-sky Joint Research Centre (JRC)-fraction of absorbed photosynthetically active radiation (FAPAR) algorithm was developed for the AVHRR sensors on-board NOAA-07 to -16 using the Land Surface Reflectance Climate Data Record. The retrieval algorithm was based on the radiative transfer theory, and uncertainties were included in the products. We proposed a time and spatial composite for providing both 10-day and monthly products at 0.05º × 0.05º. Quality control and validation were achieved through benchmarking against third-party products, including Sea-Viewing Wide Field-of-View Sensor (SeaWiFS) datasets produced with the same retrieval algorithm. Past ground-based measurements, providing a proxy of FAPAR, showed good agreement of seasonality values over short homogeneous canopies and mixed vegetation. The average difference between SeaWiFS and QA4ECV monthly products over 2002–2005 is about 0.075 with a standard deviation of 0.091. We proposed a monthly linear bias correction that reduced these statistics to 0.02 and 0.001. The complete harmonized long-term time series was then used to address its fitness for the purpose of analysis of global terrestrial change.

AVHRR

Accuracy Assessment of Global Internal-Tide Models Using Satellite Altimetry Models Using Satellite Altimetry

Altimeter measurements are corrected for several geophysical parameters in order to access ocean signals of interest, like mesoscale or sub-mesoscale variability. The ocean tide is one of the most critical corrections due to the amplitude of the tidal elevations and to the aliasing phenomena of high-frequency signals into the lower-frequency band, but the internal-tide signatures at the ocean surface are not yet corrected globally. Internal tides can have a signature of several centimeters at the surface with wavelengths of about 50–250 km for the first mode and even smaller scales for higher-order modes. The goals of the upcoming Surface Water Ocean Topography (SWOT) mission and other high-resolution ocean measurements make the correction of these small-scale signals a challenge, as the correction of all tidal variability becomes mandatory to access accurate measurements of other oceanic signals. In this context, several scientific teams are working on the development of new internal-tide models, taking advantage of the very long altimeter time series now available, which represent an unprecedented and valuable global ocean database. The internal-tide models presented here focus on the coherent internal-tide signal and they are of three types: empirical models based upon analysis of existing altimeter missions, an assimilative model and a three-dimensional hydrodynamic model. A detailed comparison and validation of these internal-tide models is proposed using existing satellite altimeter databases. The analysis focuses on the four main tidal constituents: M2, K1, O1 and S2. The validation process is based on a statistical analysis of multi-mission altimetry including Jason-2 and Cryosphere Satellite-2 data. The results show a significant altimeter variance reduction when using internal-tide corrections in all ocean regions where internal tides are generating or propagating. A complementary spectral analysis also gives some estimation of the performance of each model as a function of wavelength and some insight into the residual non-stationary part of internal tides in the different regions of interest. This work led to the implementation of a new internal-tide correction (ZARON'one) in the next geophysical data records version-F (GDR-F) standards.

Loren Carrere

Informing NLP Learning Tasks by Tracking User Features: An ASRS Use Case using Kaona

There has been growing interest in utilizing natural language processing (NLP) algorithms in Aviation Safety. This interest has extended to leveraging the decades of records publicly available on the Aviation Safety Reporting System (ASRS). While related literature has given more emphasis in lessons learned from the narratives, our prior work has focused on using NLP to support narrative search in the ASRS. Specifically, we evaluated if the use of alternative search mechanisms to keyword search, such as the retrieval of related narratives even without matching keywords could improve narrative discovery. A difficulty in experimenting alternative search mechanisms in any information retrieval task is the lack of ground truth. To address this limitation, we propose Kaona, a lightweight interface which enables the prototyping of alternative search retrieval tasks, by tracking user experience both explicitly (user-specified feedback), or implicitly (user navigation through interface affordances). Differently from distracting requests for feedback during user navigation, Kaona collects explicit feedback from users by mapping them to affordances which support the user workflow, while obtaining ground truth information for learning tasks.

human-computer-interaction

Monitoring Land Use and Degradation Using Satellite and Airborne Data

Data on the Manix Basin Area of the Mojave Desert have been collected by AVIRIS, AIRSAR, and Landsat TM. The purpose of this study is to use a fusion of a time series of satellite data with airborne data to provide a context for the airborne data. The satellite data time series will additionally help to validate the observation and analysis of time-dependent processes observed in the single AVIRIS image of fields abandoned for different periods of time.

land