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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 NTRSDate not supplied

A Daily Surface Melt Product From Passive Microwave Swath Observations for Arctic Sea Ice Studies

Most passive microwave sea ice data products are produced with daily gridded brightness temperatures. However, a single polar-orbiting passive microwave instrument makes many measurements per day where swaths overlap in the polar regions. These level 1 swath brightness temperature observations can be used to derive information on sub-daily sea ice processes. One such process is the rapid transition of snow and ice between freezing and melting due to diurnal freeze-thaw cycling or brief warming events in the pre-melt season. Here, a new method utilizing the sub-daily variability in swath-to-swath observations is used to produce daily, binary maps of the melting status on Arctic Sea ice using Level 1C brightness temperatures from the Special Sensor Microwave Imager and Sounder (SSM/I-SSMIS) data record. The resulting data set will enable investigations of the frequency, inter-annual variability, and spatial extent of brief surface melting events occurring in the winter and shoulder seasons outside of the traditional summer melt season.

Angela C. Bliss↗
NASA NTRS2024

An Airborne Multi-Frequency Microwave Analysis of Precipitation within Two Winter Cyclones

NASA’s Investigation of Microphysics and Precipitation for Atlantic Coast-Threatening Snowstorms (IMPACTS) field campaign gathered data using “satellite-simulating” (albeit with higher-resolution data than satellites currently provide) and in situ aircraft to study snowstorms, with an emphasis on banding. This study used three IMPACTS microwave instruments—two passive and one active—chosen for their sensitivity to precipitation microphysics. The 10–37-GHz passive frequencies were well suited for detecting light precipitation and differentiating rain intensities over water. The 85–183-GHz frequencies were more sensitive to cloud ice, with higher cloud tops manifesting as lower brightness temperatures, but this did not necessarily correspond well to near-surface precipitation. Over land, retrieving precipitation information from radiometer data is more difficult, requiring increased reliance on radar to assess storm structure. A dual-frequency ratio (DFR) derived from the radar’s Ku- and Ka-band frequencies provided greater insight into storm microphysics than reflectivity alone. Areas likely to contain mixed-phase precipitation (often the melting layer/bright band) generally had the highest DFR, and high-altitude regions likely to contain ice usually had the lowest DFR. The DFR of rain columns increased toward the ground, and snowbands appeared as high-DFR anomalies.

Amanda Richter↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

AMSR-2 Daily Snow Depth Data Product Using a Neural Network Algorithm Trained by Collocated ICESat-2 Measurements

By using diffusion theory and Monte Carlo lidar radiative transfer simulations, Hu 1 et al. (2022b) has derived snow depth from the first-, second- and third-order moments of the lidar backscattering pathlength distribution. Lu 2 et al. (2022,2024) calculated the snow depth by applying the methods to the satellite ICESat-2 lidar measurements over the Arctic sea ice, as well as land surfaces of Northern Hemisphere. In this paper, a neural network (NN) algorithm, employing several channels from AMSR-2 and the humidity vertical profiles GMAO GEOS-IT, is trained to determine snow depth identified by time and geolocation matched 2019 ICESat-2 snow-depth data during winter months over the Arctic sea ice. The trained NN snow-depth was applied to 2014-2020 AMSR-2 clear pixel data, although the algorithms perform reasonably well in thinner clouds. This paper used AMSR-2 data, a passive microwave instrument to generate a wide range of snow depth data, covering extensive spatial areas in the cross-orbit direction.

Neural Network↗
NASA NTRS1977

A passive chevron replicator

Instrument design provides replicate function between device storage area and guardrail detector in order that nondestructive read-out of memory can be achieved. Use of guardrail detectors in magnetic domain (bubble) circuits is proposed method of increasing detector signal output by increasing detector size without dedicating an excessive amount of device chip area to detector portion.

Oeffinger, T. R.↗
NASA NTRS2009

The James Webb Space Telescope: Mission Overview and Status

The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) is the infrared successor to the Hubble Space Telescope. It is a cryogenic infrared space observatory with a 25 sq. m aperture (6 m telescope yielding diffraction limited angular resolution at a wavelength of 2 micron. The science instrument payload includes three passively cooled near-infrared instruments providing broad- and narrow-band imagery, coronagraphy, as well as multi object and integral-field spectroscopy over the 0.6 < 0 < 5.0 micron spectrum. An actively cooled mid-infrared instrument provides broad-band imagery, coronagraphy, and integral-field spectroscopy over the 5.0 < 0 < 29 micron spectrum. The JWST is being developed by NASA, in partnership with the European and Canadian Space Agencies, as a general user facility with science observations to be proposed by the international astronomical community in a manner similar to the Hubble Space Telescope. Technology development and mission design are complete, and construction is underway in all areas of the program. The JWST is on schedule to reach launch readiness during 2014.

Greenhouse, Matthew A.↗
NASA NTRS2011

The James Webb Space Telescope: Mission Overview and Status

The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) is the Infrared successor to the Hubble Space Telescope. It is a cryogenic infrared space observatory with a 25 sq m aperture (6 m class) telescope yielding diffraction limited angular resolution at a wave1ength of 2 micron. The science instrument payload includes three passively cooled near-infrared instruments providing broad- and narrow-band imagery, coronagraphy, as well as multi-object and integral-field spectroscopy over the 0.6 <lambda < 5.0 micron spectrum. An actively cooled mid-infrared instrument provides broad-band imagery, coronagraphy, and integral-field spectroscopy over the 5.0 < lambda < 29 micron spectrum. The JWST is being developed by NASA, in partnership with the European and Canadian Space Agencies, as a general user facility with science observations to be proposed by the international astronomical community in a manner similar to the Hubble Space Telescope. Technology development and mission design are complete, and construction is underway in all areas of the program.

Greenhouse, Matthew A.↗
NASA NTRS2015

The JWST Science Instrument Payload: Mission Context and Status

The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) is the scientific successor to the Hubble Space Telescope. It is a cryogenic infrared space observatory with a 25 sq m aperture (6 m class) telescope that will achieve diffraction limited angular resolution at a wavelength of 2 micrometers. The science instrument payload includes four passively cooled near-infrared instruments providing broad- and narrow-band imagery, coronography, as well as multi-object and integral-field spectroscopy over the 0.6 is less than lambda is less than 5.0 micrometers spectrum. An actively cooled mid-infrared instrument provides broad-band imagery, coronography, and integral-field spectroscopy over the 5.0 is less than lambda is less than 29 micrometers spectrum. The JWST is being developed by NASA, in partnership with the European and Canadian Space Agencies, as a general user facility with science observations proposed by the international astronomical community in a manner similar to the Hubble Space Telescope. Technology development and mission design are complete. The science instrument payload is in the final stage of testing ahead of delivery for integration with the telescope during early 2016. The JWST is on schedule for launch during 2018.

narrow-band imagery↗
NASA NTRS2014

The JWST Science Instrument Payload: Mission Context and Status

The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) is the scientific successor to the Hubble Space Telescope. It is a cryogenic infrared space observatory with a 25 sq m aperture (6 m class) telescope that will achieve diffraction limited angular resolution at a wavelength of 2 microns. The science instrument payload includes four passively cooled near-infrared instruments providing broad- and narrow-band imagery, coronography, as well as multi-object and integral-field spectroscopy over the 0.6 < lambda < 5.0 microns spectrum. An actively cooled mid-infrared instrument provides broad-band imagery, coronography, and integral-field spectroscopy over the 5.0 < lambda < 29 microns spectrum. The JWST is being developed by NASA, in partnership with the European and Canadian Space Agencies, as a general user facility with science observations to be proposed by the international astronomical community in a manner similar to the Hubble Space Telescope. Technology development and mission design are complete. Construction, integration and verification testing is underway in all areas of the program. The JWST is on schedule for launch during 2018.

cryogenic infrared space observatory↗
NASA NTRS2019

The James Webb Space Telescope: Mission Overview and Status

The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) is the scientific successor to the Hubble Space Telescope. It is a cryogenic infrared space observatory with a 25 m2 aperture (6 m class) telescope that will achieve diffraction limited angular resolution at a wavelength of 2 um. The science instrument payload includes four passively cooled near-infrared instruments providing broad- and narrow-band imagery, coronography, as well as multi-object and integral-field spectroscopy over the 0.6 < λ < 5.0 µm spectrum. An actively cooled mid-infrared instrument provides broad-band imagery, coronography, and integral-field spectroscopy over the 5.0 < λ < 29 µm spectrum. The JWST is being developed by NASA, in partnership with the European and Canadian Space Agencies, as a general user facility with science observations proposed by the international astronomical community in a manner similar to the Hubble Space Telescope. Technology development and mission design are complete. Construction, integration and verification testing is underway in all areas of the program. The JWST is on schedule for launch during 2021.

Greenhouse, Matthew↗
NASA NTRS1980

Carbon fiber plume sampling for large scale fire tests at Dugway Proving Ground

Carbon fiber sampling instruments were developed: passive collectors made of sticky bridal veil mesh, and active instruments using a light emitting diode (LED) source. These instruments measured the number or number rate of carbon fibers released from carbon/graphite composite material when the material was burned in a 10.7 m (35 ft) dia JP-4 pool fire for approximately 20 minutes. The instruments were placed in an array suspended from a 305 m by 305 m (1000 ft by 1000 ft) Jacob's Ladder net held vertically aloft by balloons and oriented crosswind approximately 140 meters downwind of the pool fire. Three tests were conducted during which released carbon fiber data were acquired. These data were reduced and analyzed to obtain the characteristics of the released fibers including their spatial and size distributions and estimates of the number and total mass of fibers released. The results of the data analyses showed that 2.5 to 3.5 x 10 to the 8th power single carbon fibers were released during the 20 minute burn of 30 to 50 kg mass of initial, unburned carbon fiber material. The mass released as single carbon fibers was estimated to be between 0.1 and 0.2% of the initial, unburned fiber mass.

Chovit, A. R.↗
NASA NTRS1975

Preliminary design and performance of an advanced gamma ray spectrometer for future orbiter missions

A knowledge of the composition of planets, satellites, and asteroids is of primary importance in understanding the formation and evolution of the solar system. Gamma-ray spectroscopy is capable of measuring the composition of meter-depth surface material from orbit around any body possessing little or no atmosphere. Measurement sensitivity is determined by detector efficiency and resolution, counting time, and the background flux while the effective spatial resolution depends upon the field-of-view and counting time together with the regional contrast in composition. The advantages of using germanium as a detector of gamma rays in space are illustrated experimentally and a compact instrument cooled by passive thermal radiation is described. Calculations of the expected sensitivity of this instrument at the Moon and Mars show that at least a dozen elements will be detected, twice the number which have been isolated in the Apollo gamma-ray data.

Metzger, A. E.↗
NASA NTRS1975

Preliminary design and performance of an advanced gamma-ray spectrometer for future orbiter missions

A knowledge of the composition of planets, satellites, and asteroids is of primary importance in understanding the formation and evolution of the solar system. Gamma-ray spectroscopy is capable of measuring the composition of meter-depth surface material from orbit around any body possessing little or no atmosphere. Measurement sensitivity is determined by detector efficiency and resolution, counting time and the background flux, while the effective spatial resolution depends upon the field-of-view and counting time together with the regional contrast in composition. The advantages of using germanium as a detector of gamma rays in space are illustrated experimentally and a compact instrument cooled by passive thermal radiation is described. Calculations of the expected sensitivity of this instrument at the moon and Mars show that at least a dozen elements should be measurable, twice the number which have been isolated in the Apollo gamma-ray data

Metzger, A. E.↗
NASA NTRS1986

Active-passive airborne ocean color measurement. II - Applications

Reported here for the first time is the use of a single airborne instrument to make concurrent measurements of oceanic chlorophyll concentration by (1) laser-induced fluorescence, (2) passive upwelling radiance, and (3) solar-induced chlorophyll fluorescence. Results from field experiments conducted with the NASA airborne oceanographic lidar (AOL) in the New York Bight demonstrate the capability of a single active-passive instrument to perform new and potentially important ocean color studies related to (1) active lidar validation of passive ocean color in-water algorithms, (2) chlorophyll a in vivo fluorescence yield variability, (3) calibration of active multichannel lidar systems, (4) effect of sea state on passive and active ocean color measurements, (5) laser/solar-induced chlorophyll fluorescence investigations, and (6) subsequent improvement of satellite-borne ocean color scanners. For validation and comparison purposes a separate passive ocean color sensor was also flown along with the new active-passive sensor during these initial field trials.

Hoge, F. E.↗
NASA NTRS1985

Computerized data reduction techniques for nadir viewing remote sensors

Computer resources have been developed for the analysis and reduction of MAPS experimental data from the OSTA-1 payload. The MAPS Research Project is concerned with the measurement of the global distribution of mid-tropospheric carbon monoxide. The measurement technique for the MAPS instrument is based on non-dispersive gas filter radiometer operating in the nadir viewing mode. The MAPS experiment has two passive remote sensing instruments, the prototype instrument which is used to measure tropospheric air pollution from aircraft platforms and the third generation (OSTA) instrument which is used to measure carbon monoxide in the mid and upper troposphere from space platforms. Extensive effort was also expended in support of the MAPS/OSTA-3 shuttle flight. Specific capabilities and resources developed are discussed.

Tiwari, S. N.↗
NASA NTRS2015

Radiation Budget Instrument (RBI) for JPSS-2

Radiation Budget Instrument (RBI) will be one of five instruments flying aboard the JPSS-2 spacecraft, a polar-orbiting sun-synchronous satellite in Low Earth Orbit. RBI is a passive remote sensing instrument that will follow the successful legacy of the Clouds and Earth's Radiant Energy System (CERES) instruments to make measurement of Earth's short and longwave radiation budget. The goal of RBI is to provide an independent measurement of the broadband reflected solar radiance and Earth's emitted thermal radiance by using three spectral bands (Shortwave, Longwave, and Total) that will have the same overlapped point spread function (PSF) footprint on Earth. To ensure precise NIST-traceable calibration in space the RBI sensor is designed to use a visible calibration target (VCT), a solar calibration target (SCT), and an infrared calibration target (ICT) containing phase change cells (PCC) to enable on-board temperature calibration. The VCT is a thermally controlled integrating sphere with space grade Spectralon covering the inner surface. Two sides of the sphere will have fiber-coupled laser diodes in the UV to IR wavelength region. An electrical substitution radiometer on the integrating sphere will monitor the long term stability of the sources and the possible degradation of the Spectralon in space. In addition the radiometric calibration operations will use the Spectralon diffusers of the SCT to provide accurate measurements of Solar degradation. All those stable on-orbit references will ensure that calibration stability is maintained over the RBI sensor lifetime. For the preflight calibration the RBI will view five calibration sources - two integrating spheres and three CrIS (Cross-track Infrared Sounder ) -like blackbodies whose outputs will be validated with NIST calibration approach. Thermopile are the selected detectors for the RBI. The sensor has a requirement to perform lunar calibration in addition to solar calibration in space in a way similar to CERES instruments approach. To monitor climate change and to get stable and traceable results, it is critical to assure stable calibration over instrument lifetime.

Georgieva, Elena↗
NASA NTRS2019

A Laser Heterodyne Radiometer for Sampling Plumes of Icy Moons

We propose to develop an instrument capable of passively sampling plumes in icy moon environments for the components needed for life and habitability. The compact, low-mass and power, orbital instrument would be an occultation-viewing laser heterodyne radiometer (LHR) that collects sunlight passing through the plumes of icy moons to measure abundancies of key trace gases such as water vapor, methane, ethane, carbon dioxide, and their isotopes. Laser heterodyne radiometers are based on radio receiver technology and have been applied to measurements of trace gases in Earth and planetary atmospheres since the 1960s. Our team has recently adapted this technology into a 4U (20cm x 20cm x 10cm) CubeSat instrument to measure carbon dioxide, methane and water vapor in the Earth's atmosphere (launching on Virgin Orbit in 2019) and have the experience to develop this into a compact science payload to monitor gases emerging from icy moons of Saturn and Jupiter.

laser heterodyne radiometer (LHR)↗
NASA NTRS2022

Precipitation Estimation From the NASA TROPICS Mission: Initial Retrievals and Validation

This paper describes the initial results of precipitation estimates from the Time-Resolved Observations of Precipitation structure and storm Intensity with a Constellation of Smallsats (TROPICS) Millimeter-wave Sounder (TMS) using the Precipitation Retrieval and Profiling Scheme (PRPS). The TROPICS mission consists of a Pathfinder cubesat and a constellation of six cubesats, providing a low-cost solution to the frequent sampling of precipitation systems across the Tropics. The TMS instrument is a 12-channel cross-track scanning radiometer operating at frequencies from 91.655 to 204.8 GHz, providing similar resolutions to current passive microwave sounding instruments. These retrievals showcases the potential of the TMS instrument for precipitation retrievals. The PRPS has been modified for use with the TMS using a database based upon observations from current sounding sensors. The results shown here represent the initial post-launch version of the retrieval scheme, as analyzed for the Pathfinder cubesat launched on June 30, 2021. In terms of monthly precipitation estimates the results fall within the mission specifications and are similar in performance t

Chris Kidd↗