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Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.

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At least 145 records · Page 8
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS2013

Smectites on Cape York, Matijevic Hill, Mars, Observed and Characterized by Crism and Opportunity

Opportunity has conducted an extensive "walk-about" and set of in-situ measurements on strata exposed on the inboard side of Cape York, a segment of the dissected rim of the Noachian-age approx.22 km wide Endeavour crater [1] (Fig. 1). The specific region for the observations (Matijevic Hill) was chosen based on along track oversampled (ATO) CRISM hyperspectral observations (processed to 5 m/pixel) that showed the presence of exposures of Fe/Mg smectite phyllosilicates. We describe the first ground-based observations of phyllosilicates on Mars and discuss implications based on the combined CRISM and Opportunity measurements.

Arvidson, R.↗
NASA NTRS2008

A Peak Wind Probability Forecast Tool for Kennedy Space Center and Cape Canaveral Air Force Station

This conference abstract describes the development of a peak wind forecast tool to assist forecasters in determining the probability of violating launch commit criteria (LCC) at Kennedy Space Center (KSC) and Cape Canaveral Air Force Station (CCAFS) in east-central Florida. The peak winds are an important forecast element for both the Space Shuttle and Expendable Launch Vehicle (ELV) programs. The LCC define specific peak wind thresholds for each launch operation that cannot be exceeded in order to ensure the safety of the vehicle. The 45th Weather Squadron (45 WS) has found that peak winds are a challenging parameter to forecast, particularly in the cool season months of October through April. Based on the importance of forecasting peak winds, the 45 WS tasked the Applied Meteorology Unit (AMU) to develop a short-range peak-wind forecast tool to assist in forecasting LCC violatioas.The tool will include climatologies of the 5-minute mean end peak winds by month, hour, and direction, and probability distributions of the peak winds as a function of the 5-minute mean wind speeds.

Crawford, Winifred↗
NASA NTRS2013

Update to the Objective Lightning Probability Forecast Tool in use at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida

This conference poster describes the improvement of a set of lightning probability forecast equations that are used by the 45th Weather Squadron forecasters for their daily 1100 UTC (0700 EDT) weather briefing during the warm season months of May-September. This information is used for general scheduling of operations at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station and Kennedy Space Center. Forecasters at the Spaceflight Meteorology Group also make thunderstorm forecasts during Shuttle flight operations. Five modifications were made by the Applied Meteorology Unit: increased the period of record from 15 to 17 years, changed the method of calculating the flow regime of the day, calculated a new optimal layer relative humidity, used a new smoothing technique for the daily climatology, and used a new valid area. The test results indicated that the modified equations showed and increase in skill over the current equations, good reliability and an ability to distinguish between lightning and non-lightning days.

Lambert, Winifred↗
NASA NTRS2008

Update to the Objective Lightning Probability Forecast Tool in Use at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida

This conference presentation describes the improvement of a set of lightning probability forecast equations that are used by the 45th Weather Squadron forecasters for their daily 1100 UTC (0700 EDT) weather briefing during the warm season months of May-September. This information is used for general scheduling of operations at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station and Kennedy Space Center. Forecasters at the Spaceflight Meteorology Group also make thunderstorm forecasts during Shuttle flight operations. Five modifications were made by the Applied Meteorology Unit: increased the period of record from 15 to 17 years, changed the method of calculating the flow regime of the day, calculated a new optimal layer relative humidity, used a new smoothing technique for the daily climatology, and used a new valid area. The test results indicated that the modified equaitions showed and increase in skill over the current equations, good reliability, and an ability to distinguish between lightning and non-lightning days.

Lambert, Winifred↗
NASA NTRS2010

An Objective Verification of the North American Mesoscale Model for Kennedy Space Center and Cape Canaveral Air Force Station

The 45th Weather Squadron (45 WS) Launch Weather Officers use the 12-km resolution North American Mesoscale (NAM) model (MesoNAM) text and graphical product forecasts extensively to support launch weather operations. However, the actual performance of the model at Kennedy Space Center (KSC) and Cape Canaveral Air Force Station (CCAFS) has not been measured objectively. In order to have tangible evidence of model performance, the 45 WS tasked the Applied Meteorology Unit to conduct a detailed statistical analysis of model output compared to observed values. The model products are provided to the 45 WS by ACTA, Inc. and include hourly forecasts from 0 to 84 hours based on model initialization times of 00, 06, 12 and 18 UTC. The objective analysis compared the MesoNAM forecast winds, temperature and dew point, as well as the changes in these parameters over time, to the observed values from the sensors in the KSC/CCAFS wind tower network. Objective statistics will give the forecasters knowledge of the model's strength and weaknesses, which will result in improved forecasts for operations.

Bauman, William H., III↗
NASA NTRS2007

Developing a Peak Wind Probability Forecast Tool for Kennedy Space Center and Cape Canaveral Air Force Station

This conference presentation describes the development of a peak wind forecast tool to assist forecasters in determining the probability of violating launch commit criteria (LCC) at Kennedy Space Center (KSC) and Cape Canaveral Air Force Station (CCAFS) in east-central Florida. The peak winds are an important forecast element for both the Space Shuttle and Expendable Launch Vehicle (ELV) programs. The LCC define specific peak wind thresholds for each launch operation that cannot be exceeded in order to ensure the safety of the vehicle. The 45th Weather Squadron (45 WS) has found that peak winds are a challenging parameter to forecast, particularly in the cool season months of October through April. Based on the importance of forecasting peak winds, the 45 WS tasked the Applied Meteorology Unit (AMU) to develop a short-range peak-wind forecast tool to assist in forecasting LCC violations. The tool will include climatologies of the 5-minute mean and peak winds by month, hour, and direction, and probability distributions of the peak winds as a function of the 5-minute mean wind speeds.

Lambert, WInifred↗
NASA NTRS2013

Severe Weather Tool using 1500 UTC Cape Canaveral Air Force Station Soundings

People and property at Kennedy Space Center (KSC) and Cape Canaveral Air Force Station (CCAFS) are at risk when severe weather occurs. Strong winds, hail and tornadoes can injure individuals and cause costly damage to structures if not properly protected. NASA's Launch Services Program and Ground Systems Development and Operations Program and other KSC programs use the daily and weekly severe weather forecasts issued by the 45th Weather Squadron (45 WS) to determine if they need to limit an activity such as working on gantries, or protect property such as a vehicle on a pad. The 45 WS requested the Applied Meteorology Unit (AMU) develop a warm season (May-September) severe weather tool for use in the Meteorological Interactive Data Display System (MIDDS) based on the late morning, 1500 UTC (1100 local time), CCAFS (XMR) sounding. The 45 WS frequently makes decisions to issue a severe weather watch and other severe weather warning support products to NASA and the 45th Space Wing in the late morning, after the 1500 UTC sounding. The results of this work indicate that certain stability indices based on the late morning XMR soundings can depict differences between days with reported severe weather and days with no reported severe weather. The AMU determined a frequency of reported severe weather for the stability indices and implemented an operational tool in MIDDS.

Bauman, William H., III↗
NASA NTRS2012

Rates of Dinitrogen Fixation and the Abundance of Diazotrophs in North American Coastal Waters Between Cape Hatteras and Georges Bank

We coupled dinitrogen (N2) fixation rate estimates with molecular biological methods to determine the activity and abundance of diazotrophs in coastal waters along the temperate North American Mid-Atlantic continental shelf during multiple seasons and cruises. Volumetric rates of N2 fixation were as high as 49.8 nmol N L(sup -1) d(sup -1) and areal rates as high as 837.9 micromol N m(sup -2) d(sup -1) in our study area. Our results suggest that N2 fixation occurs at high rates in coastal shelf waters that were previously thought to be unimportant sites of N2 fixation and so were excluded from calculations of pelagic marine N2 fixation. Unicellular N2-fixing group A cyanobacteria were the most abundant diazotrophs in the Atlantic coastal waters and their abundance was comparable to, or higher than, that measured in oceanic regimes where they were discovered. High rates of N2 fixation and the high abundance of diazotrophs along the North American Mid-Atlantic continental shelf highlight the need to revise marine N budgets to include coastal N2 fixation. Integrating areal rates of N2 fixation over the continental shelf area between Cape Hatteras and Nova Scotia, the estimated N2 fixation in this temperate shelf system is about 0.02 Tmol N yr(sup -1), the amount previously calculated for the entire North Atlantic continental shelf. Additional studies should provide spatially, temporally, and seasonally resolved rate estimates from coastal systems to better constrain N inputs via N2 fixation from the neritic zone.

Middle Atlantic Bight↗
NASA NTRS2014

A Sounding-based Severe Weather Tool to Support Daily Operations at Kennedy Space Center and Cape Canaveral Air Force Station

People and property at Kennedy Space Center (KSC) and Cape Canaveral Air Force Station (CCAFS) are at risk when severe weather occurs. Strong winds, hail and tornadoes can injure individuals and cause costly damage to structures if not properly protected. NASA's Launch Services Program and Ground Systems Development and Operations Program and other KSC programs use the daily and weekly severe weather forecasts issued by the 45th Weather Squadron (45 WS) to determine if they need to limit an activity such as working on gantries, or protect property such as a vehicle on a pad. The 45 WS requested the Applied Meteorology Unit (AMU) develop a warm season (May-September) severe weather tool for use in the Meteorological Interactive Data Display System (MIDDS) based on the late morning, 1500 UTC (1100 local time), CCAFS (XMR) sounding. The 45 WS frequently makes decisions to issue a severe weather watch and other severe weather warning support products to NASA and the 45th Space Wing in the late morning, after the 1500 UTC sounding. The results of this work indicate that certain stability indices based on the late morning XMR soundings can depict differences between days with reported severe weather and days with no reported severe weather. The AMU determined a frequency of reported severe weather for the stability indices and implemented an operational tool in MIDDS.

Hail↗
NASA NTRS2014

A Numerical Testbed for Remote Sensing of Aerosols, and its Demonstration for Evaluating Retrieval Synergy from a Geostationary Satellite Constellation of GEO-CAPE and GOES-R

We present a numerical testbed for remote sensing of aerosols, together with a demonstration for evaluating retrieval synergy from a geostationary satellite constellation. The testbed combines inverse (optimal-estimation) software with a forward model containing linearized code for computing particle scattering (for both spherical and non-spherical particles), a kernel-based (land and ocean) surface bi-directional reflectance facility, and a linearized radiative transfer model for polarized radiance. Calculation of gas absorption spectra uses the HITRAN (HIgh-resolution TRANsmission molecular absorption) database of spectroscopic line parameters and other trace species cross-sections. The outputs of the testbed include not only the Stokes 4-vector elements and their sensitivities (Jacobians) with respect to the aerosol single scattering and physical parameters (such as size and shape parameters, refractive index, and plume height), but also DFS (Degree of Freedom for Signal) values for retrieval of these parameters. This testbed can be used as a tool to provide an objective assessment of aerosol information content that can be retrieved for any constellation of (planned or real) satellite sensors and for any combination of algorithm design factors (in terms of wavelengths, viewing angles, radiance and/or polarization to be measured or used). We summarize the components of the testbed, including the derivation and validation of analytical formulae for Jacobian calculations. Benchmark calculations from the forward model are documented. In the context of NASA's Decadal Survey Mission GEOCAPE (GEOstationary Coastal and Air Pollution Events), we demonstrate the use of the testbed to conduct a feasibility study of using polarization measurements in and around the O2 A band for the retrieval of aerosol height information from space, as well as an to assess potential improvement in the retrieval of aerosol fine and coarse mode aerosol optical depth (AOD) through the synergic use of two future geostationary satellites, GOES-R (Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite R-series) and TEMPO (Tropospheric Emissions: Monitoring of Pollution). Strong synergy between GEOS-R and TEMPO are found especially in their characterization of surface bi-directional reflectance, and thereby, can potentially improve the AOD retrieval to the accuracy required by GEO-CAPE.

Aerosols↗
NASA NTRS2015

Real-Time Kennedy Space Center and Cape Canaveral Air Force Station High-Resolution Model Implementation and Verification

NASA's Launch Services Program, Ground Systems Development and Operations, Space Launch System and other programs at Kennedy Space Center (KSC) and Cape Canaveral Air Force Station (CCAFS) use the daily and weekly weather forecasts issued by the 45th Weather Squadron (45 WS) as decision tools for their day-to-day and launch operations on the Eastern Range (ER). Examples include determining if they need to limit activities such as vehicle transport to the launch pad, protect people, structures or exposed launch vehicles given a threat of severe weather, or reschedule other critical operations. The 45 WS uses numerical weather prediction models as a guide for these weather forecasts, particularly the Air Force Weather Agency (AFWA) 1.67 km Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model. Considering the 45 WS forecasters' and Launch Weather Officers' (LWO) extensive use of the AFWA model, the 45 WS proposed a task at the September 2013 Applied Meteorology Unit (AMU) Tasking Meeting requesting the AMU verify this model. Due to the lack of archived model data available from AFWA, verification is not yet possible. Instead, the AMU proposed to implement and verify the performance of an ER version of the high-resolution WRF Environmental Modeling System (EMS) model configured by the AMU (Watson 2013) in real time. Implementing a real-time version of the ER WRF-EMS would generate a larger database of model output than in the previous AMU task for determining model performance, and allows the AMU more control over and access to the model output archive. The tasking group agreed to this proposal; therefore the AMU implemented the WRF-EMS model on the second of two NASA AMU modeling clusters. The AMU also calculated verification statistics to determine model performance compared to observational data. Finally, the AMU made the model output available on the AMU Advanced Weather Interactive Processing System II (AWIPS II) servers, which allows the 45 WS and AMU staff to customize the model output display on the AMU and Range Weather Operations (RWO) AWIPS II client computers and conduct real-time subjective analyses.

Meteorology↗
NASA NTRS2015

Real-Time Kennedy Space Center and Cape Canaveral Air Force Station High-Resolution Model Implementation and Verification

Customer: NASA's Launch Services Program (LSP), Ground Systems Development and Operations (GSDO), and Space Launch System (SLS) programs. NASA's LSP, GSDO, SLS and other programs at Kennedy Space Center (KSC) and Cape Canaveral Air Force Station (CCAFS) use the daily and weekly weather forecasts issued by the 45th Weather Squadron (45 WS) as decision tools for their day-to-day and launch operations on the Eastern Range (ER). For example, to determine if they need to limit activities such as vehicle transport to the launch pad, protect people, structures or exposed launch vehicles given a threat of severe weather, or reschedule other critical operations. The 45 WS uses numerical weather prediction models as a guide for these weather forecasts, particularly the Air Force Weather Agency (AFWA) 1.67 kilometer Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model. Considering the 45 WS forecasters' and Launch Weather Officers' (LWO) extensive use of the AFWA model, the 45 WS proposed a task at the September 2013 Applied Meteorology Unit (AMU) Tasking Meeting requesting the AMU verify this model. Due to the lack of archived model data available from AFWA, verification is not yet possible. Instead, the AMU proposed to implement and verify the performance of an ER version of the AMU high-resolution WRF Environmental Modeling System (EMS) model (Watson 2013) in real-time. The tasking group agreed to this proposal; therefore the AMU implemented the WRF-EMS model on the second of two NASA AMU modeling clusters. The model was set up with a triple-nested grid configuration over KSC/CCAFS based on previous AMU work (Watson 2013). The outer domain (D01) has 12-kilometer grid spacing, the middle domain (D02) has 4-kilometer grid spacing, and the inner domain (D03) has 1.33-kilometer grid spacing. The model runs a 12-hour forecast every hour, D01 and D02 domain outputs are available once an hour and D03 is every 15 minutes during the forecast period. The AMU assessed the WRF-EMS 1.33-kilometer domain model performance for the 2014 warm season (May-September). Verification statistics were computed using the Model Evaluation Tools, which compared the model forecasts to observations. The mean error values were close to 0 and the root mean square error values were less than 1.8 for mean sea-level pressure (millibars), temperature (degrees Kelvin), dewpoint temperature (degrees Kelvin), and wind speed (per millisecond), all very small differences between the forecast and observations considering the normal magnitudes of the parameters. The precipitation forecast verification results showed consistent under-forecasting of the precipitation object size. This could be an artifact of calculating the statistics for each hour rather than for the entire 12-hour period. The AMU will continue to generate verification statistics for the 1.33-kilometer WRF-EMS domain as data become available in future cool and warm seasons. More data will produce more robust statistics and reveal a more accurate assessment of model performance. Once the formal task was complete, the AMU conducted additional work to better understand the wind direction results. The results were stratified diurnally and by wind speed to determine what effects the stratifications would have on the model wind direction verification statistics. The results are summarized in the addendum at the end of this report. In addition to verifying the model's performance, the AMU also made the output available in the Advanced Weather Interactive Processing System II (AWIPS II). This allows the 45 WS and AMU staff to customize the model output display on the AMU and Range Weather Operations AWIPS II client computers and conduct real-time subjective analyses. In the future, the AMU will implement an updated version of the WRF-EMS model that incorporates local data assimilation. This model will also run in real-time and be made available in AWIPS II.

Numerical Weather Prediction↗
NASA NTRS2016

Estuarine and Coastal Wildlife Research at Cape Canaveral

Dr. Eric Reyier has been invited to give a 15-minute oral and Powerpoint presentation to the Florida Sport Fishing Association (north Chapter) regarding fisheries research and management in the greater Cape Canaveral region. The focus of the talk will center on the Florida Atlantic Coast Telemetry Array, a multi-agency network of submerged acoustic receivers used to track the movements of economically valuable sportfish, sharks, and sea turtles here at KSC and elsewhere along the US east coast. The talk has been given (in varying forms) several times before and is always a positive story for KSC.

essential fish habitat↗
NASA NTRS2017

Using C-Band Dual-Polarization Radar Signatures to Improve Convective Wind Forecasting at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station and NASA Kennedy Space Center

The United States Air Force's 45th Weather Squadron (45WS) is the organization responsible for monitoring atmospheric conditions at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station and NASA Kennedy Space Center (CCAFS/KSC) and issuing warnings for hazardous weather conditions when the need arises. One such warning is issued for convective wind events, for which lead times of 30 and 60 minutes are desired for events with peak wind gusts of 35 knots or greater (i.e., Threshold-1) and 50 knots or greater (i.e., Threshold-2), respectively (Roeder et al. 2014).

Convective Wind↗
NASA NTRS2017

Statistical Assessment of Cetacean Stranding Events in Cape Cod Area

Cetacean (whales, dolphins and porpoises) mass strandings are a longstanding mystery in the field of marine biology that continue to be recorded in coastal environments around the world. For each of these events, anywhere from a few to several hundred otherwise healthy animals strand in onshore environments, often for no apparent reason. While the causes of these events remain unclear, anthropogenic and naturogenic mechanisms have been suggested. We present results of an inter-disciplinary study that draws expertise from space weather, marine mammal biology and ecology, and marine mammal stranding response. This study assessed 16 years of cetacean stranding events in the Cape Cod (Massachusetts, USA) area concurrently with a large dataset of meteorological, geophysical, biological, oceanographic and space weather data to produce inferences about possible causes for these unexplained events.

Dolphi↗
NASA NTRS2019

Field Calibration Techniques used to Characterize the Radiometric Stability of the GEO-CAPE Airborne Simulator (GCAS)

The GEOstationary Coastal and Air Pollution Events (GEO-CAPE) Airborne Simulator (GCAS) was developed at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) and has flown in multiple field campaigns to perform mapping of the regional-scale EPA criteria pollutants nitrogen dioxide, ozone, and formaldehyde. GCAS will also participate invalidation campaigns for NASA’s Tropospheric Emissions: Monitoring POllution (TEMPO) mission and the Korean Geostationary Environment Monitoring Spectrometer (GEMS) mission, both scheduled to launch in the early 2020s. GCAS houses two commercial Offner-type grating spectrometers that measure backscattered solar spectral radiance from the near-ultraviolet to near-infrared at high spatial resolution (typically 250 meters at 8.5 kilometer altitude). These radiances are used to retrieve spatial and temporal distributions of trace gases relevant to the boundary layer and free tropospheric atmospheric chemistry cycles. In this paper, we describe the field calibration techniques employed to characterize the spectral and temporal radiometric stability of the system during its most recent deployment in the 2018 Long Island Sound Trace Ozone Study (LISTOS) field campaign. Overall measurement uncertainty, retrieval impacts, and lessons learned for future deployments will also be described.

NASA’s Tropospheric Emissions: Monitoring POllutio↗
NASA NTRS2021

Pedestal Hazard Abatement and Soil Removal Construction Completion Report for Launch Complex 34, Solid Waste Management Unit CC054, Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida

This Construction Completion Report summarizes the activities associated with implementation of an interim measure (IM) for hazard abatement of the Launch Pedestal and soil removal at Launch Complex 34 (LC34), Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida. The purpose of the hazard abatement IM was to mitigate any continuing source of contamination associated with residual paint on the Launch Pedestal that contained polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs). Sampling determined that residual PCB concerns were limited to the steel elements on the top-side of the Pedestal, which included the torus ring, feed pipe, down pipes, pipe straps and shields, remaining steel cover plates and bolts, and railing support steel. The IM also mitigated the potential spread of contamination to surrounding areas by removing fallen metal fragments from the concrete launch pad, as well as soil from trenches on the launch pad where PCB-containing paint chips may have accumulated prior to or during Pedestal hazard abatement activities.

Complex 34↗