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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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Infrared spectroradiometer measures high-resolution spectral absorption, emission, temperature, and concentration of chemical species in radically symmetric zones of the exhaust plumes of large rocket engines undergoing static firing tests. Measurements are made along predetermined lines of sight through the plume.
Field and laboratory measurements of species of atmospheric interest made as part of the JPL diode laser spectroscopy program are presented. Stratospheric measurements of NO2, NO, CO2, and H2O made in November 1985 using the BLISS instrument are reported, together with recent laboratory measurements of spectral line parameters of HNO3 and HO2NO2. In addition, a novel diode laser instrument concept for the in situ sensing of Titan's atmosphere is described for the Saturn Orbiter/Titan Probe (SOTP) Cassini Mission.
New high dispersion, high resolution X ray spectrometer
A Froome-type plasma-metal-junction device (1962) was used in high-resolution radiation transmission measurements in the atmosphere at wavelengths from 0.5 to 3.0 mm. The experimental and theoretical results for water vapor absorption lines in two submillimeter wavelength windows were compared, showing that this technique provided a much higher wavelength accuracy than more conventional optical-type spectroscopy.
Bragg-reflex images of small individual crystallites in the size range of 20-100 A diameter with known crystallographic orientation were used in a transmission electron microscope to determine in-situ: (a) the relationship between objective lens current (or accelerating voltage) changes in discrete steps and corresponding defocus, (b) the spherical aberration coefficient, and (c) the axial chromatic aberration coefficient of the objective lens. The accuracy of the described method is better than 5%. The same specimen can advantageously be used to properly aline the illuminating beam with respect to the optical axis.
Fraction of deuterium/hydrogen mixture is isolated by column chromatography, ionized, and the HD+1-0 band absorption measured with conventional high-resolution infrared spectrophotometer.
Wildfire response depends on how fast an ignition can be confirmed and located, especially in remote regions where ground-based communication and monitoring may be limited. Geostationary sensors provide frequent observations but at kilometer-scale resolution, which is too coarse to resolve small fires in remote terrain. Ground camera networks require sightlines and infrastructure that back-country areas lack. To address these limitations, this work proposes a Multi-Tier Autonomous Wildfire Intelligence System that combines wide-area monitoring with targeted, high-resolution sensing. A solar-powered high-altitude long endurance (HALE) platform operating at approximately 60,000 ft provides persistent wide-area thermal and optical surveillance, running onboard edge inference to screen candidate ignitions and reduce false positives and downlink bandwidth. When a candidate ignition is detected, low-altitude uncrewed aircraft systems (UAS) can be deployed to conduct localized observations, including high-resolution imaging and atmospheric measurements such as wind and plume observation. By combining persistent detection with local sensing, the proposed architecture is designed to provide first responders with timely, high-resolution information about fire location and behavior to aid in emergency decision making.
High-resolution lithium-drifted silicon and germanium detectors for measuring line widths of 2p-1s transitions in low-Z pionic atoms
Element abundances in igneous rocks measured by instrumental neutron activation using high resolution lithium drifted germanium detectors
This Special Issue focuses on noise associated with Advanced Air Mobility (AAM), an emerging class of predominantly electric distributed-propulsion aircraft designed for urban and regional transportation. As these vehicles move toward certification and deployment, noise has become a central challenge for regulatory approval and public acceptance, particularly due to operations in densely populated areas and at low altitudes. The 24 contributions in this issue address three key aspects of AAM noise: prediction, measurement, and human perception. Prediction studies span a wide range of modeling fidelities, from high-resolution simulations to improved semi-analytical approaches, and examine complex aeroacoustic mechanisms including rotor interactions, turbulence ingestion, and broadband noise generation. Measurement studies, largely at model scale, provide new insights into tonal and broadband noise characteristics across configurations and operating conditions, while supporting model validation. Perception-focused contributions investigate annoyance, sound quality metrics, and auralization, emphasizing the role of context and operational factors in shaping human response. Together, these works highlight the interdisciplinary nature of AAM noise research and the need for integrated approaches to enable quieter vehicle design.
Potential research applications of satellite data over the terrestrial ice sheets of Greenland and Antarctica are assessed and actions required to ensure acquisition of relevant data and appropriate processing to a form suitable for research purposes are recommended. Relevant data include high-resolution visible and SAR imagery, infrared, passive-microwave and scatterometer measurements, and surface topography information from laser and radar altimeters.
The native ice composition of Halley-type Comet 13P/Olbers (hereafter 13P) was measured post-perihelion, on UT 2024 August 16 using iSHELL, the 1–5 μm cross-dispersed, high-resolution facility spectrograph at the NASA InfraRed Telescope Facility. At that time, the heliocentric distance (Rh) of 13P was 1.37 au and the geocentric distance (Δ) was 1.99 au. Using a slit that delivered spectral resolving power RP λ/Δλ 4.5 × 104, two instrument settings targeted rovibrational emissions of seven parent molecules released into the coma through sublimation of ices in the nucleus. These settings provided broad and contiguous or nearly contiguous spectral coverage, one simultaneously measuring H2O, CO, and OCS, and the other simultaneously measuring CH4, C2H6, CH3OH, and H2CO. Meaningful abundances were obtained for all seven species. Our study revealed substantial enrichments of CO and CH4, the two most volatile species systematically targeted at IR wavelengths in comets. Relative to their respective mean abundance ratios among measured comets from the Oort cloud reservoir, CO in 13P was enriched by a factor of about six and CH4 was enriched by a factor of about three. Together with near-average abundances measured for CH3OH and C2H6, this suggests large endowments of CO and CH4 on interstellar grains, yet it could indicate inhibited surface chemistry on the pre-cometary grains subsequently contained in the nucleus or 13P. Assuming that this represents the primordial composition of 13P, it could reflect very low temperatures in its natal environment (∼10 K or lower).
Collimator with wide fields of view detectors designed for extraterrestrial X-ray source measurements
A volume density profile of the OH radical throughout the 45- to 70-km region of the earth's upper atmosphere is presented. A high-resolution polarized Ebert-Fastie spectrometer flown aboard a sounding rocket was used to obtain the data. The molecule was found to have a scale height significantly greater than that of the atmosphere, with local densities of 4.4 million/cu cm at 50 km, 5.5 million/cu cm at 60 km, and 3.5 million/cu cm at 70 km.
An interactive man-computer system, termed WINDCO, which was developed to measure cloud motions from pictures obtained by the ATS-I and ATS-III satellites, is described. The system will measure motions to at least three knots at moderate cost in a real-time environment. Accuracy could be improved by a factor of 4 by incorporating high-resolution visible SMS data.
Examination of relative differential cross sections for inelastic scattering of CO(+) by Ar with a high-resolution ion-beam apparatus in which a CO(+) beam interacts with a neutral-Ar beam, and the energy, mass, and angular distribution of scattered ions are measured. Maxima in the inelastic energy-loss spectra occur at energies corresponding to CO(+) spectroscopic vibrational spacings. Weakly inelastic processes are observed below the threshold for vibrational energy loss, corresponding to rotational excitation with the relative importance of rotational transitions increasing with decreasing energy and scattering angle.
Electron micrographs have been obtained which clearly show the existence of a void network in amorphous Ge films formed at substrate temperatures of 25 and 150 C, and the absence of a void network in films formed at higher substrate temperatures of 200 and 250 C. These results correlate quite well with density measurements and predictions of void densities by indirect methods.
As global demand for sustainable development grows, the integration of Earth Observation (EO) data into decision making frameworks has become a primary objective for the scientific community. The NASA Prediction of Worldwide Energy Resources (POWER) project serves as a bridge between NASA EO data and the specialized needs of the renewable energy, sustainable infrastructure and agroclimatology communities. In this poster presentation we will present an overview of POWER data products and services along with its use in diverse research to decision-making workflows. By providing over 40 years of high-resolution historical, hourly and daily solar and meteorological data, POWER transforms satellite observations and global model reanalysis into actionable, Analysis-Ready Dataset (ARD). Currently, the project delivers over 250 industry-friendly parameters to the users from different NASA datasets like CERES SYN1Deg, MERRA-2, and IMERG alongside downscaled CMIP6 climate model data, fulfilling over 16 million requests from 50,000 unique users monthly. To ensure data quality and traceability, these parameters are rigorously validated against the ground-based observations from the Baseline Surface Radiation Network (BSRN) and the Global Surface Summary of the Day (GSOD) – these results will be discussed in the presentation. A newly introduced web-based PaRameter Uncertainty ViEwer (PRUVE) tool will be presented that provides an online validation platform to the users that benchmarks satellite-based and assimilation data products against these surface measurements. To reduce technical barriers to data adoption, POWER data is accessible through RESTful APIs, ESRI ArcGIS Image Services, a web-based Data Access Viewer tool, allowing users to visualize, validate and apply the dataset. For efficient data delivery POWER data is cloud-optimized into Zarr datastore accessible through NASA managed Amazon S3 ensures high-performance allowing users to integrate EO directly into operational pipelines. These customized services will be presented. Use cases from application will be presented from the energy sector - such as for design of generation systems, performance monitoring of solar power plants, in infrastructure sector- optimizing building energy efficiency and thermal comfort, in agriculture – such as driving crop simulation and yield forecasting models to enable climate resilient farming. Furthermore, the shift toward machine learning (ML) in EO research that has positioned POWER as a key provider for training datasets which will be discussed. Use-cases will be presented to showcase how NASA data is enabling the development of predictive tools for climate variability and resource management. The poster will present POWER’s future plans including technology development to enhance data traceability and reproducibility and improving I/O performance to support the rapid integration of new EO products, ensuring that POWER remains a robust scalable backend for the evolving landscape of AI-driven Earth Science. Additionally, POWER is developing an AI Agent and an MCP-Server to enable industry AI-Agentic workflows.