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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 1,747 records · Page 97
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS2013

Shuttle Topography Data Inform Solar Power Analysis

The next time you flip on a light switch, there s a chance that you could be benefitting from data originally acquired during the Space Shuttle Program. An effort spearheaded by Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) and the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) in 2000 put together the first near-global elevation map of the Earth ever assembled, which has found use in everything from 3D terrain maps to models that inform solar power production. For the project, called the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM), engineers at JPL designed a 60-meter mast that was fitted onto Shuttle Endeavour. Once deployed in space, an antenna attached to the end of the mast worked in combination with another antenna on the shuttle to simultaneously collect data from two perspectives. Just as having two eyes makes depth perception possible, the SRTM data sets could be combined to form an accurate picture of the Earth s surface elevations, the first hight-detail, near-global elevation map ever assembled. What made SRTM unique was not just its surface mapping capabilities but the completeness of the data it acquired. Over the course of 11 days, the shuttle orbited the Earth nearly 180 times, covering everything between the 60deg north and 54deg south latitudes, or roughly 80 percent of the world s total landmass. Of that targeted land area, 95 percent was mapped at least twice, and 24 percent was mapped at least four times. Following several years of processing, NASA released the data to the public in partnership with NGA. Robert Crippen, a member of the SRTM science team, says that the data have proven useful in a variety of fields. "Satellites have produced vast amounts of remote sensing data, which over the years have been mostly two-dimensional. But the Earth s surface is three-dimensional. Detailed topographic data give us the means to visualize and analyze remote sensing data in their natural three-dimensional structure, facilitating a greater understanding of the features and processes taking place on Earth."

Source record↗
NASA NTRS2012

Study of Movement and Seepage Along Levees Using DINSAR and the Airborne UAVSAR Instrument

We have studied the utility of high resolution SAR (synthetic aperture radar) for levee monitoring using UAVSAR (Uninhabited Aerial Vehicle Synthetic Aperture Radar) data collected along the dikes and levees in California's Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta and along the lower Mississippi River. Our study has focused on detecting and tracking changes that are indicative of potential problem spots, namely deformation of the levees, subsidence along the levee toe, and seepage through the levees, making use of polarimetric and interferometric SAR techniques. Here was present some results of those studies, which show that high resolution, low noise SAR imaging could supplement more traditional ground-based monitoring methods by providing early indicators of seepage and deformation.

levee health↗
NASA NTRS2021

Automated Uas Measurements of Reflectance and Solar Induced Florescence (SIF) for Assessment Of the Dinamics in Photosynthetic Function, Application for Maze (Zea Mays L.) in Greenbelt, Maryland, Us

For accurate assessment of vegetation function there is a strong need for advancement in the remote sensing methods and instruments, to enable monitoring of the parameters governing photosynthesis at the temporal frequency relevant to their dynamics and at a spatial scale that allows practical assessment and management. Currently, no single sensor can provide data at the desired high temporal, spectral and spatial resolutions. Our field measurements obtained using the integrated UAS Piccolo system during the summers of2017 and 2018 demonstrate that science quality reflectance and solar induced fluorescence (SIF) data can be retrieved with high temporal frequency using small Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS). The implemented approach facilitates data comparisons through space and time, and the integration with other spectral satellite and airborne data. This investigation contributes for bridging the gap in Earth observation between field and airborne measurements by implementing autonomous methods for obtaining high temporal frequency spectroscopy measurements from an Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) at various illumination conditions. An advancement in the Intelligent Payload Module (IPM) facilitated the implementation of an optimization workflow to collect spectral data for characterizing vegetation reflectance and solar induced fluorescence (SIF).

Petya Campbell↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Towards a more realistic representation of NASA CERES-derived surface radiative fluxes during polar night: a comparison with the MOSAiC field campaign

The Arctic is one of the most sensitive regions of Earth to climate change, and yet remains one of the more difficult regions to both observe and simulate. The high latitude of the Arctic gives it some unusual features compared with much of Earth, such as large and variable sea ice cover, extensive mixed phase cloud cover, and the polar day/night cycle. These features significantly influence the radiative environment of the Arctic as well as the ability to observe it. The remoteness of the Arctic from most of civilization makes large volumes of in situ observations difficult to collect, and so satellite observations are a critical tool for observing the region, such as those from Clouds and the Earth’s Radiant Energy System (CERES). But validating the satellite radiative flux estimates is difficult because of the lack of in situ measurements. A useful remedy is utilizing measurements from field campaigns, such as the year-long Multidisciplinary drifting Observatory for the Study of Arctic Climate (MOSAiC) expedition during 2019-2020. The extensive high-quality surface radiative flux and meteorological measurements collected from MOSAiC provide a useful check on flux retrievals from CERES instruments. Previous work compared MOSAiC and CERES surface radiative fluxes during the 2020 melt season (April-September). Errors in CERES fluxes were related to errors in estimated atmospheric optical depth and surface albedo. We conduct a similar assessment of CERES surface flux retrievals using MOSAiC data, but for the months of October through March instead. As this time period is mostly during polar night and twilight, the focus of the study is on longwave surface fluxes. To better understand the reasons for errors in CERES fluxes, we use the large set of meteorological measurements also collected by MOSAiC, including surface temperature, thermodynamic vertical profiles, surface turbulent fluxes, and cloud properties. For example, one notable possible source of error in the CERES estimate of surface downwelling longwave flux is the estimate of cloud base height when compared with MOSAiC W-band radar measurements – an overestimate of cloud base height yields an underestimate of the downwelling flux on the order of tens of W m2.

J. Brant Dodson↗
DOE OSTI2026

Rapid Analyses of Sparse Seismoacoustic Data Reveals the Timing and Size of the Accurate Energetic Systems Explosion

On 10 October 2025 an explosion occurred at a facility operated by Accurate Energetic Systems in Humphreys County, Tennessee. The incident resulted in 16 fatalities and created a debris field over several square kilometers. To address remaining questions about explosion timing and size, we collected about 20 seismic and 19 acoustic records of the blast from sensors up to hundreds of kilometers away. We then deployed 10 distinct physics-based, reduced order models (ROMs) that used validated geological structure and atmospheric conditions from the time of the event, along with observations of body- and surface-wave energy, as well as acoustic overpressure and phase duration. Each ROM predicted either timing, yield estimates, or both. We binned these estimates and their uncertainties according to each ROMs’ assumptions about confinement (aboveground, buried fully coupled, and buried partially coupled) and combined these estimates with other forensic data to conclude that the event occurred as a single, aboveground explosion on 10 December 2025 12:47:50.8 ±0.1 s with a yield equivalent to 11.8 [2.3,16.5] tons of Trinitrotoluene. Our estimates align with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives inventory reports of 11–13 tons. This multimethod approach demonstrates the use of remotely observed geophysical data to rapidly aid conventional forensic investigations of accidental explosions.

45 MILITARY TECHNOLOGY, WEAPONRY, AND NATIONAL DEF↗
DOE OSTI2026

Aircraft-derived particle fluxes distinguish entrainment zone and decoupled layer nucleation in marine boundary layers

The vertical distribution of freshly nucleated aerosol particles in the marine boundary layer remains poorly constrained, limiting our ability to represent new particle formation in climate models. Here we characterize 3–10 nm particle events, termed small particle events (SPEs), by deriving their vertical turbulent fluxes from aircraft measurements during the Aerosol and Cloud Experiments in the Eastern North Atlantic (ACE-ENA) campaign. To overcome stationarity limitations of traditional eddy covariance methods, we applied continuous wavelet transform analysis to data collected during June–July 2017 and January–February 2018 flights over the Azores. Our flux-based analysis revealed two distinct SPE scenarios with different vertical structures and spatial extents. The first featured nucleation in the entrainment zone, where free tropospheric air entrains into the boundary layer. The second showed nucleation in the decoupled layer, a stratified region between the well-mixed surface layer and cloud-topped upper boundary layer. In both cases, convergence of air masses from different layers diluted preexisting aerosol surface area to very low levels, creating conditions favorable for nucleation and generating strong downward particle fluxes. SPEs occurred in 15 % of flights, challenging prevailing theoretical expectations that new particle formation should rarely occur in marine boundary layers due to high condensation and coagulation sink capacity of sea spray aerosols. Aircraft-derived particle fluxes provide first observational constraints on the vertical location and source strength of likely nucleation regions in the remote marine boundary layer, improving aerosol source representations in climate models and reducing uncertainties in aerosol-cloud interactions.

Rasheeda Satheesh, Ajmal [North Carolina State Uni↗
NASA NTRS2019

Developing a soil inversion model framework for regional permafrost monitoring

Currently, the community lacks capabilities to assess and monitor landscape scale permafrost active layer dynamics over large extents. To address this need, we developed a concept of a remote sensing based Soil Inversion Model for regional Permafrost (SIM-P) monitoring. The current SIM-P framework includes a satellite-based soil process model and a soil dielectric model. We are also working on incorporating a radar scattering model for Arctic tundra into the SIM-P framework. A unified soil parameterization scheme was developed to harmonize key soil thermal, hydraulic and dielectric parameters in the soil process and radar models that can be used in the joint soil-radar inversion framework. The soil parameter retrievals of the SIM-P framework include soil organic content (SOC) and active layer thickness (ALT). Initial tests of SIM-P using in-situ soil permittivity observations showed reasonable accuracy in predicting site-level SOC and soil temperature profiles at an Alaska tundra site and ALT in Arctic Alaska. SIM-P will be further tested using airborne P- and L-band radar data collected during NASA’s Arctic Boreal Vulnerability Experiment (ABoVE) to evaluate the sensitivity of longwave radar to active layer properties.

Miller, Charles E.↗
NASA NTRS2004

Cloud Detection from Satellite Imagery: A Comparison of Expert-Generated and Automatically-Generated Decision Trees

Automated cloud detection and tracking is an important step in assessing global climate change via remote sensing. Cloud masks, which indicate whether individual pixels depict clouds, are included in many of the data products that are based on data acquired on- board earth satellites. Many cloud-mask algorithms have the form of decision trees, which employ sequential tests that scientists designed based on empirical astrophysics studies and astrophysics simulations. Limitations of existing cloud masks restrict our ability to accurately track changes in cloud patterns over time. In this study we explored the potential benefits of automatically-learned decision trees for detecting clouds from images acquired using the Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) instrument on board the NOAA-14 weather satellite of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. We constructed three decision trees for a sample of 8km-daily AVHRR data from 2000 using a decision-tree learning procedure provided within MATLAB(R), and compared the accuracy of the decision trees to the accuracy of the cloud mask. We used ground observations collected by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration Clouds and the Earth s Radiant Energy Systems S COOL project as the gold standard. For the sample data, the accuracy of automatically learned decision trees was greater than the accuracy of the cloud masks included in the AVHRR data product.

Shiffman, Smadar↗
NASA NTRS2012

Detection of Coccolithophore Blooms in Ocean Color Satellite Imagery: a Generalized Approach for Use with Multiple Sensors

A generalized coccolithophore bloom classifier has been developed for use with ocean color imagery. The bloom classifier was developed using extracted satellite reflectance data from SeaWiFS images screened by the default bloom detection mask. In the current application, we extend the optical water type (OWT) classification scheme by adding a new coccolithophore bloom class formed from these extracted reflectances. Based on an in situ coccolithophore data set from the North Atlantic, the detection levels with the new scheme were between 1,500 and 1,800 coccolithophore cellsmL and 43,000 and 78,000 lithsmL. The detected bloom area using the OWT method was an average of 1.75 times greater than the default bloom detector based on a collection of SeaWiFS 1 km imagery. The versatility of the scheme is shown with SeaWiFS, MODIS Aqua, CZCS and MERIS imagery at the 1 km scale. The OWT scheme was applied to the daily global SeaWiFS imagery mission data set (years 19972010). Based on our results, average annual coccolithophore bloom area was more than two times greater in the southern hemisphere compared to the northern hemi- sphere with values of 2.00 106 km2 and 0.75 106 km2, respectively. The new algorithm detects larger bloom areas in the Southern Ocean compared to the default algorithm, and our revised global annual average of 2.75106 km2 is dominated by contributions from the Southern Ocean.

chlorophyll fluorescence↗
NASA NTRS1996

Predictions of malaria vector distribution in Belize based on multispectral satellite data

Use of multispectral satellite data to predict arthropod-borne disease trouble spots is dependent on clear understandings of environmental factors that determine the presence of disease vectors. A blind test of remote sensing-based predictions for the spatial distribution of a malaria vector, Anopheles pseudopunctipennis, was conducted as a follow-up to two years of studies on vector-environmental relationships in Belize. Four of eight sites that were predicted to be high probability locations for presence of An. pseudopunctipennis were positive and all low probability sites (0 of 12) were negative. The absence of An. pseudopunctipennis at four high probability locations probably reflects the low densities that seem to characterize field populations of this species, i.e., the population densities were below the threshold of our sampling effort. Another important malaria vector, An. darlingi, was also present at all high probability sites and absent at all low probability sites. Anopheles darlingi, like An. pseudopunctipennis, is a riverine species. Prior to these collections at ecologically defined locations, this species was last detected in Belize in 1946.

Non-NASA Center↗
NASA NTRS2002

Coastal Atmosphere and Sea Time Series (CoASTS)

In this document, the first three years of a time series of bio-optical marine and atmospheric measurements are presented and analyzed. These measurements were performed from an oceanographic tower in the northern Adriatic Sea within the framework of the Coastal Atmosphere and Sea Time Series (CoASTS) project, an ocean color calibration and validation activity. The data set collected includes spectral measurements of the in-water apparent (diffuse attenuation coefficient, reflectance, Q-factor, etc.) and inherent (absorption and scattering coefficients) optical properties, as well as the concentrations of the main optical components (pigment and suspended matter concentrations). Clear seasonal patterns are exhibited by the marine quantities on which an appreciable short-term variability (on the order of a half day to one day) is superimposed. This short-term variability is well correlated with the changes in salinity at the surface resulting from the southward transport of freshwater coming from the northern rivers. Concentrations of chlorophyll alpha and total suspended matter span more than two orders of magnitude. The bio-optical characteristics of the measurement site pertain to both Case-I (about 64%) and Case-II (about 36%) waters, based on a relationship between the beam attenuation coefficient at 660nm and the chlorophyll alpha concentration. Empirical algorithms relating in-water remote sensing reflectance ratios and optical components or properties of interest (chlorophyll alpha, total suspended matter, and the diffuse attenuation coefficient) are presented.

Hooker, Stanford B.↗
NASA NTRS2014

Reducing Size, Weight, and Power (SWaP) of Perception Systems in Small Autonomous Aerial Systems

The objectives are to examine recent trends in the reduction of size, weight, and power (SWaP) requirements of sensor systems for environmental perception and to explore new technology that may overcome limitations in current systems. Improving perception systems to facilitate situation awareness is critical in the move to introduce increasing autonomy in aerial systems. Whether the autonomy is in the current state-of-the-art of increasing automation or is enabling cognitive decisions that facilitate adaptive behavior, collection of environmental information and fusion of that information into knowledge that can direct actuation is imperative to decisions resulting in appropriate behavior. Artificial sensory systems such as cameras, radar, LIDAR, and acoustic sensors have been in use on aircraft for many years but, due to the large size and weight of the airplane and electrical power made available through powerful engines, the SWaP requirements of these sensors was inconsequential. With the proliferation of Remote Piloted Vehicles (RPV), the trend is in significant reduction in SWaP of the vehicles. This requires at least an equivalent reduction in SWaP for the sensory systems. A survey of some currently available sensor systems and changing technology will reveal the trend toward reduction of SWaP of these systems and will predict future reductions. A new technology will be introduced that provides an example of a desirable new trend. A new device replaces multiple conventional sensory devices facilitating synchronization, localization, altimetry, collision avoidance, terrain mapping, and data communication in a single integrated, small form-factor, extremely lightweight, and low power device that it is practical for integration into small autonomous vehicles and can facilitate cooperative behavior. The technology is based on Ultra WideBand (UWB) radio using short pulses of energy rather than continuous sine waves. The characteristics of UWB yield several desirable characteristics to facilitate integration of perception for autonomous activities. The capabilities of this device and its limitations will be assessed.

Jones, Kennie H.↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

TPSAS-NF1676L-34796-DND

The recently completed 2015-2017 EVS-2 mission NAAMES (The North Atlantic Aerosols and Marine Ecosystems Study) provides a unique set of airborne remote sensing and ship-based in situ measurements in a remote and under-sampled region of the Earth?s ocean. The NASA SABOR (Ship-Aircraft Bio-Optical Research) campaign was conducted during the summer of 2014, also in the Atlantic Ocean, out of the Chesapeake Bay and in the eastern coastal region of the United States. For both campaigns, the NASA GISS Research Scanning Polarimeter, a multi-angle, multi-spectral polarimeter measured the upwelling polarized radiances from aircraft. And for both campaigns, ship-based in situ measurements of the ocean were collected jointly with the aircraft measurements. We present results from the new RSP-MAPP (1) that is based on optimal estimation and that can retrieve simultaneous aerosol microphysical properties (including effective radius, single-scattering albedo, and real refractive index) and ocean color products using accurate radiative transfer, Mie calculations, and the DP (Detritus Plankton) series of accurate, numerically efficient ocean bio-optical models. The RSP-MAPP algorithm was applied to data collected during SABOR and NAAMES to retrieve aerosol microphysics and ocean products for all Aerosols-Above-Ocean (AAO) scenes. The RSP-MAPP products are compared against i) collocated aerosol extinction and backscatter profiles collected by the NASA LaRC airborne High Spectral Resolution Lidar (HSRL-1), including lidar depth profiles of the ocean diffuse attenuation coefficient and the hemispherical backscatter coefficient, and ii) collocated ship-based in situ measurements of the ocean.

Snorre Stamnes↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Monitoring Vegetation Impacts of Night Penning in Idaho and Oregon Grazing Allotments Using Remote Sensing

The practice of night penning, which involves corralling livestock into a fenced, secure area overnight, aims to safeguard animals from predators. Although this method has proven successful in minimizing interactions between livestock and wildlife, the extent of its impact on vegetation communities is still being explored. In this study, we used the Rangeland Analysis Platform (RAP), which aggregates spatially distributed values of vegetation composition, cover, and productivity from the Landsat missions, to quantify the effects of night penning on rangeland vegetation communities. We identified control sites that had similar topographic characteristics to night pen sites used by ranchers in Idaho and Oregon. We then quantified and compared changes in annual net primary productivity (NPP) between night pen and control sites. Our study found that RAP NPP data did not show a noticeable difference between control sites and night penning sites. When analyzed quantitatively, night pen sites showed variability in NPP before and after night penning; however, there were few discernible differences between night pen sites and control sites, suggesting that climate conditions can have more of an effect on NPP measurements compared to land management decisions. In the summer of 2024, field crews from the Natural Resource Ecology Laboratory collected biomass data from these rangeland sites, and this will be used to compare and validate RAP products while continuing to investigate the effects of night penning.

Truman Anarella↗
DOE OSTI2020

Fast Data Processing for Hyperspectral Sensors on Small Platforms

Hyperspectral imaging is a very promising technology for nuclear proliferation detection. However, due to size and weight restrictions, small hyperspectral platforms such as satellites and small drones lack the on-board computing resources for accurate, real-time analysis of the enormous flow of data that a continuously operating hyperspectral sensor generates. This severely limits satellite systems, which can collect far more data than what they can telemeter, and hinders the ability of all platforms to adapt their missions on the fly in response to observations. This program addresses the hyperspectral data processing challenge through development of new, fast and accurate algorithms that produce data products in real time. The algorithms circumvent the major computational bottlenecks in existing processing streams, and would be incorporated in lightweight, power-efficient single-board computer systems. The toolkit of fast algorithms will be immediately useful in current and future hyperspectral systems being built by the Government and by private industry, including drone-based systems and satellite constellations that acquire timely global imagery.

45 MILITARY TECHNOLOGY, WEAPONRY, AND NATIONAL DEF↗
DOE OSTI2014

Requirements Document for the Redesign of the DIM-based Diagnostics Transport and Handling System at the National Ignition Facility (NIF)

The National Ignition Facility (NIF, Figure 1) is the world’s leading user research facility for inertial confinement fusion. Diagnostic instruments that collect data from the experiment shots are transported around the facility using a series of disjointed, suboptimal transport and handling (T&H) subsystems that compromise user efficiency and ergonomics. Significant time savings and improvements to the diagnostic exchange process could be realized by designing a new transport and handling system that minimizes the hand-offs between T&H subsystems, reduces operator hassle and ergonomic strain, and improves the long-term maintainability of the system. In contrast to the current system – which employs several manually-operated carts and containers to transport the diagnostic, dock it to its destination, and install it – the new diagnostic transporter integrates the contamination container with the transport cart and provides a dynamic range of adjustability to interface with its destination. This single transporter has the requisite maneuverability, height adjustability, and fine adjustment capabilities without any rigging transactions to support contaminated diagnostic transport and handling at the alignment station and Equatorial and Polar DIMs. A remote-controlled user interface device allows operators a more hands-off experience that reduces ergonomic strain and improves safety. Assuming the cost is not prohibitive, diagnostic storage will be accomplished by simply stowing the transporter in its lowest position in the designated area of NIF. This concept for a new diagnostic transport and handling system would be better aligned with the core values of NIF: safety, quality, and reliability.

42 ENGINEERING↗
NASA NTRS2002

In-Situ Measurements of HCN and CH3CN In the Pacific Troposphere: Sources, Sinks, and Comparisons with Satellite Observations

A new capillary gas chromatographic method using a Reduction Gas Detector was developed to measure HCN and CH3CN in the remote troposphere. This instrumental configuration was deployed for the very first time in the Trace-P field mission performed during the spring of 2001. The NASA DC-8 aircraft afforded an opportunity to measure HCN and CH3CN in polluted and pristine environments over the Pacific to a maximum altitude of 12 km. These are some of the first in situ measurements of the distribution of HCN and CH3CN over the Pacific. Large background concentrations of both nitriles were found to be present and significant variability was observed. The abundance of HCN and CH3CN was strongly impacted by outflow of pollution from Asia. In general there appeared to be a direct but nonlinear relationship between the mixing ratios of HCN and CH3CN. The vertical structure of these chemicals shows direct evidence of the presence of a significant oceanic sink. These observations will be compared with the column content HCN data from satellites and other available measurements. A large body of data have been collected and are being analyzed, both statistically and with the help of models, to better understand the sources and sinks of these nitriles. These results will be presented.

Singh, Hanwant B.↗
NASA NTRS2003

PAIRS, The GIS-Based Incident Response System for Pennsylvania, and NASA

Over the past several years the Pennsylvania Departments of Environmental Protection (DEP), Health (DOH), and Agriculture (PDA) built the GIs-based Pennsylvania West Nile Surveillance System. That system has become a model for collecting data that has a field component, laboratory component, reporting and mapping component, and a public information component. Given the success of the West Nile Virus System and the events of September 11, 2001, DEP then embarked on the development of the Pennsylvania Incident Response System, or PAIRS. PAIRS is an effective GIs-based approach to providing a system for response to incidents of any kind, including terrorism because it is building upon the existing experience, infrastructure and databases that were successfully developed to respond to the West Nile Virus by DEP, DOH, and PDA. The proposed system can be described as one that supports data acquisition, laboratory forensics, decision making/response, and communications. Decision makers will have tools to view and analyze data from various sources and, at the same time, to communicate with the large numbers of people responding to the same incident. Recent collaborations with NASA partners are creating mechanisms for the PAIRS system to incorporate space-based and other remote sensing geophysical parameters relevant to public health assessment and management, such as surface temperatures, precipitation, land cover/land use change, and humidity. This presentation will describe the PAIRS system and outline the Pennsylvania-NASA collaboration for integration of space-based data into the PAIRS system.

Conrad, Eric↗