Search NASA⌕ Search

SEARCH · Search NASA

Results for “spatial performance”

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.

Quote a phrase for an exact phrase match. Source license links do not imply unrestricted reuse.

At least 163 records · Page 9

Achieving precise multiparameter measurements with distributed optical fiber sensor using wavelength diversity and deep neural networks

The development of advanced distributed optical fiber sensing systems that are capable of performing accurate and spatially resolved multiparameter measurements is of great interest to a wide range of scientific and industrial applications. Here, in this paper, we propose and experimentally demonstrate a wavelength diversity based advanced distributed optical fiber sensor system to accomplish multiparameter sensing while greatly enhancing measurement accuracy. A suite of deep neural network (DNN) algorithms are developed and verified for data denoising, rapid Brillouin frequency shift estimation, and vibration data event classification. As a proof-of-concept, we demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed advanced wavelength diversity distributed fiber sensor system assisted by DNN for simultaneous, independent measurements of static strain, temperature, and acoustic vibrations over a 25 km long sensing fiber at 3 m spatial resolution. These results suggest the potential for an intelligent multiparameter monitoring system with enhanced performance in advanced structural health monitoring applications.

47 OTHER INSTRUMENTATION↗

The development of a spectral-spatial classifier for earth observational data

Over the last several years a classifier for earth observational image data has been under development intended to achieve improved performance by utilizing spatial characteristics of the data as an adjunct to multispectral properties. The paper provides an overview of the conception, development, evaluation and documentation of this spectral-spatial classifier. The research program leading to this classifier is described, the algorithms of the current implementation called ECHO are outlined, and results on its performance are summarized. These results show improved accuracy, with greater computation efficiency, and only slightly increased operator complexity.

Landgrebe, D. A.↗

The Effect of Membrane Casting Irregularities on Initial Fuel Cell Performance

Membrane electrode assemblies (MEA) for polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells (PEMFC) may possess as-manufactured non-uniformities in any of its constituent components. This article studies casting irregularities located within the PEM to understand their potential impact on MEA initial performance. Membrane material was cast on a lab-scale polymer casting line operating either within or at the boundaries of the process window. The resulting membrane material was either pristine in the former case, or, in the latter case, contained air bubbles, cracks, and other irregularities, ranging in size from about 0.6 to 3 mm. Spatial polarization experiments were conducted using a 121-channel segmented fuel cell system, and thermal imaging was performed subsequently to map hydrogen crossover to spatial performance. While total-cell polarization data was minimally impacted by the irregularities, the spatial diagnostics showed local performance impacts that, in operation over time, could cause degradation in performance or earlier failure of the MEA. Such impacts could lead to these irregularities being classified as defects, i.e., manufacturing variations that should be identified and not included in a fuel cell stack. Classification of irregularities as defects will ultimately assist the industry by contributing to the development of threshold detection limits for in-line quality control diagnostics.

30 DIRECT ENERGY CONVERSION↗

Joint Assimilation of SMOS Brightness Temperature and GRACE Terrestrial Water Storage Observations for Improved Soil Moisture Estimation

Observations from recent soil moisture missions (e.g. SMOS) have been used in innovative data assimilation studies to provide global high spatial (i.e. 40 km) and temporal resolution (i.e. 3-days) soil moisture profile estimates from microwave brightness temperature observations. In contrast with microwave-based satellite missions that are only sensitive to near-surface soil moisture (0 - 5 cm), the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) mission provides accurate measurements of the entire vertically integrated terrestrial water storage column but, it is characterized by low spatial (i.e. 150,000 km2) and temporal (i.e. monthly) resolutions. Data assimilation studies have shown that GRACE-TWS primarily affects (in absolute terms) deeper moisture storages (i.e., groundwater). This work hypothesizes that unprecedented soil water profile accuracy can be obtained through the joint assimilation of GRACE terrestrial water storage and SMOS brightness temperature observations. A particular challenge of the joint assimilation is the use of the two different types of measurements that are relevant for hydrologic processes representing different temporal and spatial scales. The performance of the joint assimilation strongly depends on the chosen assimilation methods, measurement and model error spatial structures. The optimization of the assimilation technique constitutes a fundamental step toward a multi-variate multi-resolution integrative assimilation system aiming to improve our understanding of the global terrestrial water cycle.

Soil Moisture↗

Direct numerical simulation of hypersonic turbulent boundary layers: effect of spatial evolution and Reynolds number

Direct numerical simulations (DNS) are performed to investigate the spatial evolution of flat-plate zero-pressure-gradient turbulent boundary layers over long streamwise domains ( >300δ i , with δ i the inflow boundary-layer thickness) at three different Mach numbers, 2.5, 4.9 and 10.9, with the surface temperatures ranging from quasiadiabatic to highly cooled conditions. The settlement of turbulence statistics into a fully developed equilibrium state of the turbulent boundary layer has been carefully monitored, either based on the satisfaction of the von Kármán integral equation or by comparing runs with different inflow turbulence generation techniques. The generated DNS database is used to characterize the streamwise evolution of multiple important variables in the high-Mach-number, cold-wall regime, including the skin friction, the Reynolds analogy factor, the shape factor, the Reynolds stresses, and the fluctuating wall quantities. The data confirm the validity of many classic and newer compressibility transformations at moderately high Reynolds numbers (up to friction Reynolds number Re τ ≈1200 ) and show that, with proper scaling, the sizes of the near-wall streaks and superstructures are insensitive to the Mach number and wall cooling conditions. The strong wall cooling in the hypersonic cold-wall case is found to cause a significant increase in the size of the near-wall turbulence eddies (relative to the boundary-layer thickness), which leads to a reduced-scale separation between the large and small turbulence scales, and in turn to a lack of an outer peak in the spanwise spectra of the streamwise velocity in the logarithmic region.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗

Engineering Super–Poissonian Photon Statistics of Spatial Light Modes

The nature of light sources is defined by the statistical fluctuations of the electromagnetic field. As such, the photon statistics of light sources are typically associated with distinct emitters. Here, the possibility of producing light beams with various photon statistics through the spatial modulation of coherent light is demonstrated. This is achieved by the sequential encoding of controllable Kolmogorov phase screens in a digital micromirror device. Interestingly, the flexibility of this scheme allows for the shaping of spatial light modes with engineered photon statistics at different spatial positions. The performance of this scheme is assessed through the photon-number-resolving characterization of different families of spatial light modes with engineered photon statistics. Furthermore, it is believed that the possibility of controlling the photon fluctuations of the light field at arbitrary spatial locations has important implications for quantum spectroscopy, sensing, and imaging.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗

NPP VIIRS Early On-Orbit Geometric Performance

The NASA/NOAA Visible Infrared Imager Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) instrument on-board the Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership (NPP) satellite was launched in October, 2011. The instrument geometric performance includes sensor spatial response, band-to-band co-registration (BBR), and geolocation accuracy and precision. The geometric performance is an important aspect of sensor data record (SDR) calibration and validation. In this paper we will discuss geometric performance parameter characterization using the first seven-month of VIIRS' earth and lunar data, and compare with the at-launch performance using ground testing data and analysis of numerical modeling results as the first step in on-orbit geometric calibration and validation.

Wolfe, Robert E.↗

OrbView-3 Initial On-Orbit Characterization

NASA at Stennis Space Center (SSC) established a Space Act Agreement with Orbital Sciences Corporation (OSC) and ORBIMAGE Inc. to collaborate on the characterization of the OrbView-3 system and its imagery products and to develop characterization techniques further. In accordance with the agreement, NASA performed an independent radiometric, spatial, and geopositional accuracy assessment of OrbView-3 imagery acquired before completion of the system's initial on-orbit checkout. OSC acquired OrbView-3 imagery over SSC from July 2003 through January 2004, and NASA collected ground reference information coincident with many of these acquisitions. After evaluating all acquisitions, NASA deemed two multispectral images and five panchromatic images useful for characterization. NASA then performed radiometric, spatial, and geopositional characterizations.

Ross, Kent↗

A High-Resolution Capability for Large-Eddy Simulation of Jet Flows

A large-eddy simulation (LES) code that utilizes high-resolution numerical schemes is described and applied to a compressible jet flow. The code is written in a general manner such that the accuracy/resolution of the simulation can be selected by the user. Time discretization is performed using a family of low-dispersion Runge-Kutta schemes, selectable from first- to fourth-order. Spatial discretization is performed using central differencing schemes. Both standard schemes, second- to twelfth-order (3 to 13 point stencils) and Dispersion Relation Preserving schemes from 7 to 13 point stencils are available. The code is written in Fortran 90 and uses hybrid MPI/OpenMP parallelization. The code is applied to the simulation of a Mach 0.9 jet flow. Four-stage third-order Runge-Kutta time stepping and the 13 point DRP spatial discretization scheme of Bogey and Bailly are used. The high resolution numerics used allows for the use of relatively sparse grids. Three levels of grid resolution are examined, 3.5, 6.5, and 9.2 million points. Mean flow, first-order turbulent statistics and turbulent spectra are reported. Good agreement with experimental data for mean flow and first-order turbulent statistics is shown.

DeBonis, James R.↗

Spatially coherent radiation from an array of GaAs lasers

Spatially coherent radiation from a monolithic array of three homostructure GaAs lasers is reported. The three lasers, with their mirror faces antireflection coated, are operated in an external optical cavity built of spherical lenses and plane mirrors. The spatially coherent beam formation makes use of the Fourier transformation property of the internal lenses. The transverse mode control is performed by a spatial filter. The optical peak power at room temperature of the device was measured to be 5 W, three times the power of a single laser in the array. From the synthesized far-field distribution which was evaluated, we conclude that the laser radiation is of spatial coherence.

Philipp-Rutz, E. M.↗

Effects of spatially displaced feedback on remote manipulation tasks

Several studies have been performed to determine the effects on computer and direct manipulation task performance when viewing conditions are spatially displaced. Whether results from these studies can be directly applied to remote manipulation tasks is quenstionable. The objective of this evaluation was to determine the effects of reversed, inverted, and inverted/reversed views on remote manipulation task performance using two 3-Degree of Freedom (DOF) hand controllers and a replica position hand controller. Results showed that trials using the inverted viewing condition showed the worst performance, followed by the inverted/reversed view and the reversed view when using the 2x3 DOF. However, these differences were not significant. The inverted and inverted/reversed viewing conditions were significantly worse than the normal and reversed viewing conditions when using the Kraft Replica. A second evaluation was conducted in which additional trials were performed with each viewing condition to determine the long term effects of spatially displaced views on task performance for the hand controllers. Results of the second evaluation indicated that there was more of a difference in performance between the perturbed viewing conditions and the normal viewing condition with the Kraft Replica than with the 2x3 DOF.

Manahan, Meera K.↗

Parallel spatial direct numerical simulations on the Intel iPSC/860 hypercube

The implementation and performance of a parallel spatial direct numerical simulation (PSDNS) approach on the Intel iPSC/860 hypercube is documented. The direct numerical simulation approach is used to compute spatially evolving disturbances associated with the laminar-to-turbulent transition in boundary-layer flows. The feasibility of using the PSDNS on the hypercube to perform transition studies is examined. The results indicate that the direct numerical simulation approach can effectively be parallelized on a distributed-memory parallel machine. By increasing the number of processors nearly ideal linear speedups are achieved with nonoptimized routines; slower than linear speedups are achieved with optimized (machine dependent library) routines. This slower than linear speedup results because the Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) routine dominates the computational cost and because the routine indicates less than ideal speedups. However with the machine-dependent routines the total computational cost decreases by a factor of 4 to 5 compared with standard FORTRAN routines. The computational cost increases linearly with spanwise wall-normal and streamwise grid refinements. The hypercube with 32 processors was estimated to require approximately twice the amount of Cray supercomputer single processor time to complete a comparable simulation; however it is estimated that a subgrid-scale model which reduces the required number of grid points and becomes a large-eddy simulation (PSLES) would reduce the computational cost and memory requirements by a factor of 10 over the PSDNS. This PSLES implementation would enable transition simulations on the hypercube at a reasonable computational cost.

Joslin, Ronald D.↗

Predictions of the On-Orbit Performance of AXAF's Optics

The AXAF optics and science instruments have recently undergone a battery of tests at the Marshall Space Flight Center X-Ray Calibration Facility to determine their spatial and spectral performance. We have combined these data, detailed maps of the optics, surfaces, precise measurements of surface roughness and reflectivity, and detailed mechanical models of the optics and their support structures to arrive at predictions of the optics' on-orbit performance. We present on- and off-axis effective areas, encircled energies, and PSFS.

Jerius, D.↗

Landsat image data quality studies

Preliminary results of the Landsat-4 Image Data Quality Analysis (LIDQA) program to characterize the data obtained using the Thematic Mapper (TM) instrument on board the Landsat-4 and Landsat-5 satellites are reported. TM design specifications were compared to the obtained data with respect to four criteria, including spatial resolution; geometric fidelity; information content; and image relativity to Multispectral Scanner (MSS) data. The overall performance of the TM was rated excellent despite minor instabilities and radiometric anomalies in the data. Spatial performance of the TM exceeded design specifications in terms of both image sharpness and geometric accuracy, and the image utility of the TM data was at least twice as high as MSS data. The separability of alfalfa and sugar beet fields in a TM image is demonstrated.

Schueler, C. F.↗

A species’ response to spatial climatic variation does not predict its response to climate change

The dominant paradigm for assessing ecological responses to climate change assumes that future states of individuals and populations can be predicted by current, species-wide performance variation across spatial climatic gradients. However, if the fates of ecological systems are better predicted by past responses to in situ climatic variation through time, this current analytical paradigm may be severely misleading. Empirically testing whether spatial or temporal climate responses better predict how species respond to climate change has been elusive, largely due to restrictive data requirements. Here, we leverage a newly collected network of ponderosa pine tree-ring time series to test whether statistically inferred responses to spatial versus temporal climatic variation better predict how trees have responded to recent climate change. When compared to observed tree growth responses to climate change since 1980, predictions derived from spatial climatic variation were wrong in both magnitude and direction. This was not the case for predictions derived from climatic variation through time, which were able to replicate observed responses well. Future climate scenarios through the end of the 21st century exacerbated these disparities. These results suggest that the currently dominant paradigm of forecasting the ecological impacts of climate change based on spatial climatic variation may be severely misleading over decadal to centennial timescales.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

Performance comparisons between information extraction techniques using variable spatial resolution data

The decreased instantaneous field of view (IFOV) is one of the principal advances noted for the Thematic Mapper (TM) sensor. The 42.5 microradian IFOV of TM and the 710 km nominal orbit altitude result in a 30 m nominal spatial resolution at the earth surface. This is a considerable decrease in the projected pixel area when compared to the 79 m nominal spatial resolution of the Landsat Multispectral Scanner (MSS). An experiment was conducted which allowed a rigorous test of the influence of classifier design, with data spatial resolution of TM (30 m) and approximately that of the Landsat MSS (90 m), on classification performance for a particular TM scene. The experiment involved evaluation of the results for the per-point Gaussian maximum likelihood (GML) classifier and the supervised ECHO (Extraction and Classification of Homogeneous Objects) classifier.

Latty, R. S.↗